The IU women’s tennis team played well in stretches this weekend, but struggled to find consistency.
IU fell to No. 24 University of Notre Dame 6-1 on Friday in South Bend, Indiana. IU showed some strong play in parts of the match, but in the end Notre Dame prevailed.
Senior Caitlin Bernard and freshman Alexandra Staiculescu won their doubles match 6-4, but Notre Dame won the other two doubles matches, giving it the doubles point.
The singles matches were mostly all Fighting Irish. The lone Hoosiers point came from junior Jelly Bozovic, who won on the No. 4 singles court 2-6, 7-6 (7-3), 1-0 (10-4). Freshman Rose Hu took her match to three sets on court No. 6 but couldn’t pull out a victory.
On Sunday, IU played a pair of matches against DePaul University and Miami University in Bloomington. IU lost to DePaul 4-2 and beat Miami 4-2 to close the weekend.
Against the Blue Demons, the Hoosiers looked to be in good shape after they secured the doubles point and started singles strong. But DePaul fought back and snatched away an IU win late in the match.
“Credit to DePaul, they hung in there long enough to shift the momentum late in the match and it got away from us,” IU assistant coach Ryan Miller said. “There are some important teaching moments from this match, and I’m confident we’ll grow from it.“
In the Miami match after, the matches were different for IU. The Hoosiers got off to a sluggish start and dropped the doubles point. Miller said the team felt like it had a hangover from the morning match early on.
However, in singles, IU responded. It won four of six matches, capped off by freshman Mila Mejic winning 7-5, 6-3 on court No. 5.
This gave the Hoosiers a 4-2 victory to round out the weekend.
“It was important for us to bounce back in the afternoon match,” Miller said. “We showed some resiliency winning the first five sets in singles and closing out the match with four straight set wins.”
Now at 10-7 overall and still 1-1 in conference, IU will return to Big Ten play next weekend with home matches against Iowa and Nebraska.
“We’re excited to get rolling with the Big Ten schedule and the opportunities to keep growing,” Miller said.
IU plays Iowa at 2 p.m. Friday and Nebraska at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
