Indiana women’s tennis fell to Northwestern 5-2 at home on Sunday. The Hoosiers are now 8-4 this season and 0-1 in the Big Ten conference.
For the doubles, No. 1 doubles sophomore Lara Schneider and graduate student Saby Nihalani lost 6-1.
This was only the second loss of the No. 1 doubles this season, losing their 6-game winning streak and falling to 8-2 overall.
Playing together for the first time, No. 2 doubles redshirt junior Mila Mejic and freshman Nicole Teodosescu lost 6-3, awarding Northwestern the doubles point.
Redshirt juniors Alexandra Staiculescu and Xiaowei "Rose" Hu had their game unfinished at No. 3 after Northwestern took the point.
“We just didn’t take some of the opportunities we needed to,” head coach Ramiro Azcui said.
For the singles, the Hoosiers started behind after No. 6 graduate student Lauren Lemonds lost 6-1 and 6-0, and No. 3 Staiculescu lost 6-0 and 6-3.
The Hoosiers came back with Schneider winning 6-1 and 6-3 at No.1 and Nihalani winning 6-3 and 6-4 at No. 2.
Both are on a 5-game winning streak in singles matches. Schneider improved to 7-2 this season and Nihalani to 8-1.
“They played really well today,” Azcui said. “To be able to win No. 1 and 2 in the Big 10 against a very good Northwestern team is very tough.”
However, No. 4 Mejic was not able to close out the game after winning the first set, losing 5-7, 6-2 and 6-1.
Mejic was on a 2-game winning streak prior to this match and is now 7-5 overall this season.
Despite already having a winner, the coaches agreed to let the No. 5 singles game go the distance. Teodosescu lost her first Big 10 match 2-6, 6-3 and 7-6 (7-1).
“For her to be able to play in the last match will definitely give her a lot of experience,” Azcui said.
With the loss on Sunday, the Hoosiers are still winless against Northwestern in the matchup history, a 23-game losing streak that dates to 2006.
Indiana will play Rutgers and Maryland back-to-back on March 10 and 11.
“It’s not going to get any easier,” Azcui said. “We just have got to be ready”
