Indiana women’s tennis beat Western Michigan University 4-0 on Saturday and Belmont University 5-2 on Sunday. The Hoosiers improved to 8-3 overall.
On Saturday, Hoosiers’ No. 1 doubles sophomore Lara Schneider and graduate student Saby Nihalani shut down Western Michigan 6-0 and No. 3 doubles redshirt juniors Alexandra Staiculescu and Xiaowei "Rose" Hu won 6-3 to give the Hoosiers the doubles point.
Hoosiers No. 2 doubles redshirt junior Mila Mejic and freshman Nicole Teodosescu were up 5-4 but had their match interrupted.
Keeping the momentum, No. 3 singles Staiculescu won 6-1 and 6-1 and No. 5 Teodosescu won 6-3 and 6-2.
Mejic won 6-1 and 7-6 (7-1) at No. 4 to give Indiana the overall win.
No. 1 Schneider, No. 2 Nihalani and No. 6 graduate student Lauren Lemonds were all ahead in their matches but were stopped short after Indiana achieved the overall victory.
“We played really disciplined tennis. The energy was good. I was pleased with a lot of the performances and we took care of business when we needed to,” head coach Ramiro Azcui said after the match.
On Sunday against Belmont, Indiana started behind as No. 2 doubles Mejic and Teodosescu lost 6-1.
At No. 1, Schneider and Nihalani won 6-1 to bring the Hoosiers back, but No. 3 Staiculescu and Hu lost 6-4.
“No. 1 doubles got a great win,” Azcui said. “That team was ranked, so for them to be able to do that, I think that’s a great job for them coming in so strong.”
Behind 1-0 overall, Indiana showed up in the singles matches to bring the win home.
No. 5 Teodosescu won 6-0 and 6-0, and both No. 4 Mejic and No. 2 Nihalani won their matches 6-4 and 6-1.
Then, Lemonds won 7-5 and 6-2 at No. 6 to give the Hoosiers the win.
Schneider won 6-1 and 7-6 (7-2) at No. 1 and No. 3 Staiculescu lost 6-2, 5-7 and 1-0 (10-8) in a super tiebreaker since Indiana had already taken the win.
“We just need to get better, but I like the way we came back in the singles and really played well,” Azcui said.
Ahead of three straight Big Ten confrontations, Azcui said, “This is when you want to start peaking.”
Indiana is on a three-game win streak and plays Northwestern at home on Mar. 5.
With both wins this weekend, the Hoosiers improved to 5-1 at home.
