For the fifth consecutive year, the IU women's tennis team was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. The No. 38 Hoosiers, the 6-seed, fell 4-0 to No. 15 Northwestern, the 3-seed, at the IU Varsity Tennis Courts on Friday afternoon.
The matchup was a rematch from last Sunday, when the Wildcats defeated Indiana 6-1 in Evanston, Ill. However, sophomore Carolyn Chupa did not play in the first meeting between the two teams due to a concussion. She was cleared to play in the Big Ten Tournament, which created completely different matchups from Sunday's conference bout. On Friday, there were four new singles and two new doubles matches.
While the final score was lopsided, the match was competitive at every level. The doubles point was decided late in the No. 3 match and four of the singles matches went to a third set.
The No. 1, No. 3, and No. 5 singles matches were unfinished; senior Leslie Hureau, who is ranked No. 110, led No. 123 Veronica Corning 6-2, 4-3, Belinda Niu had a slight lead against Chupa 7-5, 2-6, 4-3, and the fifth match was tied 5-5 in the third set.
"I thought we had a battle on every court," IU Coach Lin Loring said.
He said that the four-hour long match would have lasted another 45 minutes if all of the matches finished, which he said showed how evenly matched the two teams were.
"We played well and I think we gave them everything they could handle," he said.
Chupa and Hureau teamed up for the No. 1 doubles match. They started the match with a 3-1 lead against No. 14 Linda Abu Mushrefova/Nida Hamilton and eventually won 8-4.
Sophomores Alecia Kauss and Shannon Murdy fell into a deep hole early as Corning/Alicia Barnett jumped out to a 6-1 lead. The Hoosiers fought back to cut Northwestern's lead to 7-3 but ultimately lost the No. 2 doubles match 8-3.
The No. 3 match was left to determine which team would win the doubles point. Northwestern's Niu/Kate Turvy led sophomore Katie Klyczek and junior Sophie Garre 6-4 when the No. 2 match finished. Rallying around the energy of the fans and Garre's emotional display of energy, IU fought back to win its fifth game.
A "Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoosiers" cheer echoed across the courts as IU fans in both sets of bleachers chanted Indiana's rallying cry.
"Allez, allez," Mrs. Hureau murmured as the Hoosiers mounted their comeback, telling them "Go, go" in French.
The match's twelfth set began with a thunderous volley off of the racket of Garre as she cut across the court to give IU a 15-0 lead.
Sensing the change in momentum of the match, Northwestern's strategy became to fight a war of attrition. Niu and Klyczek stood their ground, trading returns. Klyczek matched every forehand by Niu with a backhand. The rally continued for nearly one minute before the Wildcats let up and Klyczek won the point on a volley to increase Indiana's lead to 30-0. With IU leading the game 40-15, Northwestern hit a ball that split the pair of Hoosiers and was out of their reach. However, it landed barely outside of the baseline and Indiana tied the match at six games apiece.
Indiana ran out of gas and Northwestern won four consecutive points to take a 7-6 lead. The Hoosiers struggled to land their returns in bounds and Northwestern won the No. 3 doubles match, thereby taking a 1-0 lead in the quarterfinals.
In the weeks leading up to the Big Ten Tournament, Hureau said that she was excited to play at home in her final Big Ten Tournament. Her parents were flying from France to watch her suit up and play for IU for the final time in Bloomington.
Due to the limited number of outdoors courts at the IU Varsity Tennis Center and four teams playing at once, each match was allowed to use five of the 10 courts. The No. 1 singles match was randomly chosen, which meant that Hureau began singles play watching from the stands with the rest of the spectators.
"The one time my parents come from France....," she said in frustration.
Luckily for Hureau, second-seeded Nebraska defeated tenth-seeded Minnesota 4-0, which opened up a court for the No. 1 singles match between Indiana and Northwestern.
In the No. 2 singles match, No. 51 Turvy tested her underhand slice serve against No. 103 Klyczek and prevailed 6-3, 6-1 to increase Northwestern's lead to 2-0.
Loring said that Klyczek's matchup was a challenge for her due to the contrast in their play styles. He said that Turvy suffered a shoulder injury and can't serve overhand.
"When you've never played against someone who cuts the ball like that it's tough," he said. "It's a tough serve and she's perfected it."
Despite the loss in the No. 2 match, Loring said that Klyczek showed a lot of improvement from last Sunday when Turvy defeated her 6-1, 6-0.
"Katie needs a hitter, she wants to play with someone that hits," he said. "That girl has a great loop and a great slice and it's the absolute worst matchup for Katie. We knew that was going to be a tough match."
Mushrefova defeated Kauss in the No. 4 singles match 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 to bring Northwestern one step closer to advancing to the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament.
Hamilton ended the match when she came from behind to top senior Jithmie Jayawickrema 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 in the No. 6 position.
"We put ourselves in the position to win," Loring said. "There were four three-set matches, the two that were two sets we were going to win one of them and they won one of them. It's about as close as it can get. I know the girls are really disappointed, especially to lose at home but I thought we represented ourselves really well."
After suffering a loss to the Wildcats, the Hoosiers fell to 18-9 on the season, which is an improvement from their 16-11 record last year.
Indiana will take the weekend off then resume practice on Monday and Tuesday in hopes that the team is chosen to compete in the NCAA Championships.
"We'll be able to figure a few things out by Sunday," Loring said. "We'll be able to look at the conference tournaments and see how many upsets there were and how many AQs that maybe slipped through the process."
The NCAA Championships Selection Show will be at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening.
