The noise of tennis balls smacking rackets and bouncing off the court just north of 17th Street and Fee Lane are mostly heard in Bloomington from January to March.
However, once a year in the fall, usually in the last week of September or first week of October, those noises, along with the competitive screams, such as “Mine!” or “Come on!”, of the IU women’s tennis team can be heard at the IU Varsity Tennis Courts.
The Hoosiers compete in four fall tournaments, and this weekend, the Hoosier Classic, was the first one.
IU is returning seven players from last season and adding one new freshman to make up the eight-woman roster.
After two weeks of practice, IU Coach Ramiro Azcui said it was all about seeing his players get back into the competitive mode.
“We wanted to improve day by day over these three days” Azcui said. “We’ve been reinforcing some of the things we did in practice to come here and play stronger.”
Teams that came to participate in the Hoosier Classic were Cincinnati, Louisville, Ohio State, Kansas State, Marquette, Middle Tennessee and Western Michigan.
On Friday, IU went 4-4 in singles with wins coming from freshman Somer Henry, junior Anna McCoy and seniors Natalie Whalen and Madison Appel.
There were two rounds of doubles played Friday, which resulted in a 2-4 record for IU. The combos that took victories were sophomores Olga Zavarotnaya and Jelly Bozovic and junior Caitlin Bernard and Whalen.
Saturday was a much better day for IU in the doubles category. As participants of the Hoosiers Outrun Cancer 5K ran by the courts in the closing half-mile of the race, IU dominated in doubles play with a 5-2 record.
Bernard and Whalen, two of IU’s more experienced players, bounced back from Friday to win two doubles matches Saturday. The duo defeated a team from Kansas State, 8-0, and a team from Cincinnati, 8-5.
Appel also tried her luck in doubles Saturday, teaming with Bozovic for her only doubles match on the weekend and took the win over Marquette 8-6.
With it being so early, Azcui was trying all different kinds of combinations for doubles and seeing what players work best with one another.
The singles play Saturday was more of a struggle than Friday, as IU went just 2-5. Appel and Henry were the only two to earn victories.
After not competing for a while, frustration crept in at some moments for the Hoosiers.
“We were trying to work on controlling their emotions more than anything,” Azcui said. “It’s hard when you haven’t played in a while to not be in a rhythm. So, how we can control our emotions this early also helps a lot.”
On Sunday, no doubles were played and just four Hoosiers competed in singles, splitting the matches 2-2. Freshman Michelle McKamey and Bozovic scored the two wins. No team scores were kept during the tournament.
Appel, who has played No. 1 singles for the Hoosiers in her first three years, was the only Hoosier not to drop a singles and doubles match on the weekend.
Last season, IU went 17-11 and 4-7 in conference play. Although it’s too early to say much, Azcui said the team’s maturity has improved a lot, their chemistry is strong and he feels like the team will have a better year.
As for now, it’s back to the drawing board for Azcui as he readies his team for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals on Oct. 11-15 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
“You can see how much players improved over the summer, but they just aren’t putting all the things together,” Azcui said. “We are going to go back and look at some individual things so that we can keep improving day by day.”
