Seven consecutive home matches have helped the Hoosiers secure a 5-2 record. Now, with the home stand over, IU is headed south to Tennessee for its first away match of the season.
Due to the youth of the team, with six of the nine players being underclassmen, senior Kim Schmider said she thinks the team's inexperience could play a factor on the road.
“The freshmen haven’t played a match on the road yet,” Schmider said. “It’s good that we get to go down to the Tennessee on Saturday, so we’ll get to practice on the court and see what they’re like.”
The Volunteers have a 7-1 record and a perfect home record of 6-0. The Hoosiers knocked them off last year in Bloomington 4-3, but with this year's battle taking place on the road, IU Coach Ramiro Azcui said traveling seven hours to only play one match is a challenge.
“Playing at an SEC school with all their fans showing up and rooting against us will be a whole other challenge,” Azcui said. “I’m actually excited to see how the players respond to this challenge of playing on the road because when we go into the Big Ten it is very similar.”
Azcui said his team is coming in with an underdog mentality and his players can’t hold anything back. They have to be looking to upset the Volunteers.
Schmider said if the team brings enough energy and focus to the match, she has faith in the talent of the team to be able to pull out the road win.
Azcui has been switching up the team’s doubles combinations and positions throughout the season to try to find the right lineup. Last weekend, Schmider teamed with two people she’s never played with before but said the team has done a good job not letting that affect them.
“I think it’s important that we all just have an open mind,” Schmider said. “There’s no point in being down about not playing who you were playing with previously, and I think everyone has done a really good job with that.”
For this match, Schmider will team up with sophomore Madison Appel again, who was out last week with the flu, at the No. 1 doubles spot. The rest of the doubles teams figure to remain the same.
Azcui said winning the doubles point is crucial to starting matches off on the right foot. IU has won the doubles point in six out of its seven matches, which Azcui said is due to the variations within IU's pairings.
“Every position in the doubles plays a different style, and I think that’s what makes it hard to compete against us,” Azcui said. “Normally, most programs have three similarly styled doubles, and that’s why I think it’s going to be difficult for not just Tennessee, but any school to get ready for us.”
The Volunteers and Hoosiers square off at 10 a.m. Sunday in Knoxville, Tennessee.
