For the first time in the spring season, the No. 51 IU women's tennis team allowed a point. On Sunday, Indiana faced Marshall at the Huntington Tennis Club in Barboursville, W. Va. Despite losing one match in both singles and doubles play, the Hoosiers still cruised 6-1 to their sixth win of the season over the Thundering Herd.
The Huntington Tennis Club has only five tennis courts and IU Coach Lin Loring said that it made the dual match take longer. The teams had to wait until another match finished before starting the No. 6 singles match.
IU Coach Loring said that it was a good experience for the Hoosiers to play on the road and experience new court conditions.
"The lighting was poor, the courts were fast and the courts played to Marshall's favor," he said. "They have a lot of big hitters, players that I would call first strike hitters but we didn't try to out-hit them and we stuck to our game plan."
Senior Leslie Hureau won the No. 1 singles match against Dominika Zaprazna 6-1, 7-5. Sophomore Katie Klyczek lost the first set against Maria Voscekova but came from behind to win 2-6, 6-4, 10-5. Sophomores Alecia Kauss and Carolyn Chupa, along with junior Sophie Garre, won their matches in straight sets.
IU Coach Loring said that luckily Kauss quickly won her match 6-1, 6-2, which allowed sophomore Shannon Murdy and Marshall's Karlyn Timko to play their match on the open court.
Loring said that Murdy had a bad match against a big hitter in Karlyn Timko. He said that due to there only being five courts, by the time the No. 6 singles match was played, Indiana had already won the dual match and Timko could play with no pressure on her.
In doubles, Marshall's Zaprazna/Voscekova defeated the No. 31 combination of Hureau/Garre 8-4 in the No. 1 doubles match. In the No. 2 match, Chupa/Klyczek defeated Ellie Ball/Kara Kucin 8-3.
Since Indiana and Marshall split the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches, the third doubles match determined which team would win the doubles point.
Kauss/Murdy came from behind to top Karlyn Timko/Dana Oppinger 9-7.
"It was pretty exciting for us," Loring said. "We were down 7-6, maybe 7-5, so that was a nice comeback and good experience for us."
Indiana will return to action next Sunday when they host Xavier at 11:00 am and Ball State at 4:00 pm at the IU Tennis Center.
