On Tuesday evening at 6 p.m., IU Coach Lin Loring was a guest on the Joe Smith Report on WGCL 95.9 FM, live from Yogi's Grill & Bar in Bloomington.
Loring said that the women are really excited for the Big Ten Tournament, which begins on Thursday in Bloomington. He said that a lot of parents will be in town for the tournament, including senior Leslie Hureau's parents, who are traveling from France to see their daughter's final home match(es).
Loring said that hosting the tournament is a huge benefit for the women's academics.
"They realize what an advantage it is to be here and finals start Monday," he said. "A couple years ago were in the airport in Minnesota on Sunday night with finals on Monday."
Loring stressed the importance of academics for the IU women's tennis team, which can be seen through the team's 3.63 GPA last fall as well as the team's dominance in winning the Herbert Cup.
"We started an award after him [former IU President Herbert] and there had never been anything like that before and that really put it out front," he said. "It has become a tradition on the team and they take a lot of pride winning that each semester."
He said that the team has had a lot of success athletically in addition to the women's achievements in the classroom.
"When we've had everybody in the lineup, we're 7-1, including a win against Michigan, so we've beaten the No. 1 seed in the conference," Loring said. "This is probably the first time in 15 years that we've beat two top 10 teams. If we have everybody in the lineup, we can beat anybody in the country."
He said that the goal of the IU women's tennis team is to be as good as possible and he said that the Hoosiers have accomplished their goal several times this season.
Despite victories against No. 2 Duke and No. 10 Michigan, Loring acknowledged that the season has been a roller coaster ride. He said that injuries and the coaching staff not making the right personnel decisions have been two challenges for the Hoosiers this spring.
"We've done what I thought we could do, it took some time to get there," he said.
Loring said that IU's singles play has been the team's strength this season.
"I think except for one team this year, we've split the singles or won four or more [singles matches]," he said. "If we win the doubles point, we're confident that we can win the match."
When Loring looked ahead to the Big Ten Tournament, he said that in order for matches to be played outdoors, it must be at least 50 degrees and there must be less than 20 mile per hour wind.
"We've actually played really well outdoors but unfortunately with the way the spring has been we haven't had too many opportunities to play outdoors," he said. "We're confident that whatever way the weather holds this weekend we can do well."
Loring said that he can't think of a more competitive season of Big Ten women's tennis in his 35 years at the helm of the Hoosiers.
"There was a four-way tie at eighth and the teams are so close that they had trouble breaking the tie at the conference office," he said. "I don't think we've had 3 teams in the top 15 at the end of the season. There is depth at the top and depth at the bottom."
Loring said that he feels good and the women are really excited knowing that they're going to be at full strength.
"I think the girls feel really confident going into that first match and they know that they have to take care of business before looking ahead to Northwestern," he said.
