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(02/24/12 4:49am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings this week welcomed the cream and crimson for the first time this season.The Hoosiers, ranked No. 74 in the nation, look to create a winning streak against ranked opposition after downing then-No. 71 DePaul University this past Sunday.This weekend, the 8-2 Hoosiers will play Notre Dame and Kentucky.The Hoosiers will be tested as they face two BCS conference programs for the second straight week.The action begins at 3 p.m. Friday, as the team travels to South Bend to take on the No. 23 Fighting Irish. The Irish will feature nationally ranked players No. 39 Shannon Mathews and No. 124 Jennifer Kellner. Notre Dame also boasts the formidable tandem of Mathews and Kristy Frilling, ranked No. 3 in the nation.The freshmen duo of Carolyn Chupa and Katie Klyczek, who have played No. 1 doubles lately, will likely face this pair of Irish women.This will not be a new experience for the IU tandem, as it went against the No. 2 pairing from Tennessee 3-1 before surrendering seven of the next eight games to fall 8-4. Frilling was awarded the Big East Player of the Week award, meaning the Hoosiers will have played the three most recent Big East players of the week after facing Jasmin King and Rebeca Mitrea of DePaul last week.The Irish’s record stands at 6-3 this season. IU and Notre Dame have fought some of the same opponents this season. Both Notre Dame and IU have beaten the University of Cincinnati this season by scores of 7-0 and 6-1, respectively.Also, both teams have lost to No. 10 Tennessee by scores of 6-1 and 5-2, respectively.To beat the Irish, IU will lean on sophomore Kayla Fujimoto, who is 3-0 in singles matches, when the Hoosiers play nationally ranked opponents.“Every match, I go in with the same mentality and focus on my game, not the opponent,” Fujimoto said.The team heads back to Bloomington to face unranked Kentucky at 11 a.m. Sunday at the IU Tennis Center.The team from Lexington boasts the same record as IU, 8-2. Kentucky’s two losses came at the hands of Purdue 6-1 earlier in the season and Akron 4-3 this past Tuesday.Kentucky and IU have both played Cincinnati, both beating the Bearcats handily. This is the Big Blue’s last non-conference game before it kicks off the Southeastern Conference potion of its schedule.The Wildcats are still searching for their first road win of the season.Kentucky is absent from the list of nationally ranked singles players, but it will bring the No. 36 doubles tandem of Jessica Stiles and Khristina Blajkevitch into Bloomington.IU, while ranked nationally as a team for the first time this season, features no nationally ranked singles players or doubles duos.Fujimoto said for the players to continue their winning ways, one of the keys is to block out what pundits say and focus on the team.“We’ll succeed if we believe in ourselves and if we just put it together mentally,” Fujimoto said.Conversely, if the team chemistry starts to slip, so will the record, she said. “Any fault is team chemistry, and we won’t succeed,” Fujimoto said. “We have to stay united.”
(02/21/12 2:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When Evgeniya Vertesheva graduated high school in Russia, she could go to school in the United States or try to play as a professional tennis player.“In Russia, it was a choice of going professional or school,” Vertesheva said with her distinctive accent. “I wanted an education, and in Russia there are no athletics in the universities.” Vertesheva attended California State Northridge her freshman year, where she played No. 1 the entire year. She was named All-Big West for both singles and doubles.Due to a variety of reasons, she chose to wear the cream and crimson and transfer to IU her sophomore year.“I transferred to IU because of the very strong academics, especially in economics, which is my major,” Vertesheva said.At IU, she continued to excel on the court and was named to All-Big Ten in her sophomore and junior years. She led the Hoosiers in total singles wins during her sophomore year and tied with now-junior Leslie Hureau her junior year.Coming into this season, Vertesheva had to take on a different role. She is the lone senior on a young team that features five freshmen.“Since there are five freshmen and I am the only senior, I have to be more organized,” she said. “You cannot be a bad example. You have to assume responsibility. You have to be careful what you do because there are so many freshmen watching what you do.”Vertesheva said she feels responsible for the freshmen but has to watch how much she helps the newcomers.“There is a thin line,” Vertesheva said. “At some point you are responsible for them, but there are some things you should let them handle and figure out on their own. Being a freshman is pretty hard.”“Geniya has helped me a lot,” freshman Katie Klyczek said. “She’ll never belittle you for making a mistake. She’s always very supporting.”Vertesheva said all the new blood on the team can contribute to the team’s success.“There are a lot of new things on the team,” Vertesheva said. “It adds freshness, and we aren’t relying on past seasons. We have new potential.”Injuries played a big role in seasons past. For this team to succeed, individual sacrifices must be made, Vertesheva said.“We won’t succeed if we have a lack of chemistry and support,” she said. “And if we are pursuing personal rather than team goals.”IU Coach Lin Loring has helped her progress not only in her skills with the racket, but with growing as a person.“He really cares about us and pays attention to every single detail,” Vertesheva said. “Whether it’s asking us how much sleep we got last night, I know I can come to him with any problem I have.”Loring said he is happy with the kind of player and person Vertesheva is.“Geniya has been real consistent on the court and off the court. She is an excellent student,” Loring said. “She’s a total low-maintenance player. She’s never injured, never wants another racket or tennis shoe or anything.” At IU, the amount of team spirit and chemistry is a drastic dichotomy of how she trained in Russia, Vertesheva said.“I have developed a lot of team spirit since coming to America,” Vertesheva said. “I used to practice and didn’t have a team. I was an individual. The 24 sports, one team way of thinking is really true and pretty cool.”
(02/20/12 4:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This weekend the Hoosiers faced highly touted competition, taking on two ranked opponents. Friday, IU played the No. 10 Tennessee Volunteers. The nationally ranked Volunteers beat IU 5-2, snapping the Hoosiers’ seven-game winning streak.The action started when Tennessee took the doubles point by winning two of the three doubles matches.Senior Evgeniya Vertesheva and sophomore Kayla Fujimoto were ousted 8-1 in the No. 2 slot. The Hoosiers evened things up at the No. 3 slot with junior Leslie Hureau and freshman Alecia Kauss winning 8-2.With the doubles point up for grabs, the freshmen tandem of Carolyn Chupa and Katie Klyczek led the No. 2 doubles pair in the nation of Brynn Boren and Sarah Toti 3-1. Boren and Toti then won seven of the next eight games, winning 8-4.Singles action saw losses for the 1-4 slots for the Hoosiers. Hureau lost 6-2, 6-2 in the No. 1 slot to No. 34 Boren. Vertesheva lost 6-3, 6-1 to No. 37 Kata Szekely in the No. 2 slot. The No. 3 and No. 4 slots saw Klyczek and Chupa fall by the scores of 6-2, 6-3 and 6-3, 6-3, respectively.Kauss picked up the victory in the No. 5 slot 6-4, 6-2, and Fujimoto won in the No. 6 slot 7-5, 6-2.“We had some good individual performances, but overall, it was a disappointing match,” IU Coach Lin Loring said. “We beat ourselves at too many positions. They are No. 10 for a reason, but we should have been more competitive as a team.”On Sunday, the Hoosiers regrouped to beat the No. 71 DePaul Blue Demons in a 4-3 nail-biter.In doubles action, Chupa and Klyczek fell 8-3, and the pair of Hureau and Kauss beat their opponents 8-4.With the doubles point up for grabs, Vertesheva and Fujimoto trailed 5-6, and then stormed back to take the next three games, winning 8-6.In singles, Hureau and Fujimoto were victorious while Vertesheva, Klyczek and Kauss lost in straight sets.With the score knotted at 3-3, the match of Chupa and Kelsey Lawson was decisive.After getting beat 6-3 in the first set, Chupa took the second set 6-3, leaving a third set to decide the match.In the tiebreak, Chupa took the match 7-4 as Lawson’s lob went long and her teammates flooded the court to embrace in a group hug.The win for Chupa secured the match for the Hoosiers, who gained their first win versus a ranked opponent this year.“Win or lose, I think we just competed harder,” Loring said. “This team got a personality today. We had a spirit out there, and we kept fighting. I feel really good for Carolyn because she’s been in a slump lately and especially after getting killed in the first set.”When asked how it felt to win the match for the team, Chupa said there was more to the win than her singles victory.“I was definitely in a better mood after the match,” Chupa said. “Everyone on the team contributed to this match. It was a breakthrough for our team.”The team improved to 8-2 on the young season and gained a signature win in the process.“This was a win that we needed,” Loring said.
(02/16/12 4:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This weekend, the Hoosiers will look to extend their seven-game winning streak against formidable opponents at home, where they are undefeated this season.On Friday, the team will take on its first nationally ranked opponent since its season-opening loss to Duke. The Hoosiers face off against the University of Tennessee at 1:30 p.m.The Volunteers are ranked No. 17 in the nation and boast wins against No. 5 Baylor, No. 10 Michigan, No. 12 Northwestern, No. 22 Tulsa and No. 24 Notre Dame.Tennessee stands at a record of 6-3 with all three losses against top 25 competition. The Volunteers did not surrender the doubles point in any of the nine matches.The team from Knoxville, Tenn., features nationally ranked singles players No. 24 Natalie Pluskota, No. 27 Brynn Boren and No. 59 Kata Szekely. The Volunteers also have the No. 9 doubles tandem Pluskota and Szekely and No. 18 Boren and Sarah Toti.The Hoosiers will square off against DePaul University at 11 a.m. Sunday The Blue Demons have a 7-1 record during the season. They are coming off a win against No. 37 North Carolina State and No. 36 Southern Methodist University. In the past two weeks, DePaul has had two Big East Player of the Week awards. Freshman Jasmin Kling won the honor for the previous week, and fellow freshman Rebeca Mitrea won the award the week before.Taking on such highly ranked opponents, the Hoosiers such as freshman Alecia Kauss will look to continue their success. Kauss has gone 5-2 for the team portion of the season in singles, and for the past two matches, she has outscored her opponents 24-3.“I have great teammates to practice with, and we enjoy helping each other,” Kauss said. “Plus, not all scores are indicative of the match. Just because you win 6-0 doesn’t mean the other person didn’t play well.”Kauss acknowledged her recent success is a sign of her hard work.“I feel now I’m playing better and better,” Kauss said. “I wasn’t playing my best in the beginning, but now I’m coming into my own.”She said adjustments had to be made from the junior circuit to collegiate ball. “There is definitely an adjustment with college academics,” Kauss said. “First semester was more difficult, but you have to learn how to balance athletics with academics.”For this particular tennis team, Kauss said chemistry seems to be one of its best attributes.“College tennis is a lot more fun because of the team aspect,” Kauss said.Kauss, from Overland Park, Kan., had a decorated career before college ball and a multitude of options before choosing to spend her collegiate career in Bloomington. Kauss said IU’s esteemed business school and the coaching staff were big factors in her decision to forgo attending Texas A&M, Tennessee and Iowa to play for the Hoosiers.“I chose IU because I liked the team and loved (Head Coach) Loring and (Associate Head Coach) Ramiro,” Kauss said. “They are respectable people, and they are very warm and friendly.”
(02/13/12 2:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hoosiers increased their winning streak to seven Saturday with wins against Miami University (Ohio) and Ball State University.The action started at 11 a.m. as the Hoosiers took on the Miami of Ohio Redhawks. The Hoosiers ousted the team from Oxford, Ohio, with a score of 5-2.Competing for the doubles point, the tandems of sophomore Kayla Fujimoto and senior Evgeniya Vertesheva and freshman Alecia Kauss and junior Leslie Hureau both won 8-1 in their matches.With the doubles point already secured, the freshman tandem of Katie Klyczek and Carolyn Chupa were down 4-6 before rallying to take the last four games of their match, 8-6.The singles matches were tightly contested against the Redhawks. Hureau played the No. 1 spot and took the match 7-5, 6-1.The Hoosiers’ two losses for the match happened in the No. 2 and 3 slots. Vertesheva lost in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2. Chupa lost in three sets 6-4, 0-6, 6-3.“In the first match I had a bad matchup,” Vertesheva said. “I had trouble with her game style and lost the game, which was frustrating.”Klyczek won her match in straight sets, 7-6, 6-3. Her opponent’s return went into the net, which secured the win not only for Klyczek but also gave the Hoosiers the fourth point of the match, securing the team’s sixth-straight win.In the No. 5 slot, Kauss rolled to victory against her opponent 6-1, 6-0. After losing the first set of the match, Fujimoto came back to win the next two sets to take the match 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.IU Coach Lin Loring said he was not surprised with the fight Miami showed.“Miami is always (No.) 1 or 2 in the MAC Conference,” Loring said. “I was pleased with the doubles, but I think we came out flat in the singles. We knew they wouldn’t be intimidated with a Big Ten team.”In the second match of the day, the Hoosiers took on the Ball State Cardinals and swept the Muncie team 7-0. In doubles, Chupa and Klyczek, Fujimoto and Vertesheva and Hureau and Kauss all won against their opponents while not giving up more than three games in any one match.When asked who he was most impressed with for the day, Loring said he was particularly happy with the No. 2 doubles tandem of Vertesheva and Fujimoto. “The No. 2 doubles played as good as they have in a while,” Loring said. “They have been up and down this season.”The singles matches had larger margins of victories than those against Miami.Klyczek, Fujimoto and sophomore Sophie Garre all won their matches 6-0, 6-1. Kauss and Vertesheva also had little trouble with their opponents as Kauss won 6-2, 6-0 and Vertesheva won 6-1, 6-0.“I played better in the second match,” Vertesheva said. “I played like I’m used to.”When freshman Shannon Murdy’s opponent put her shot into the net, it secured the Hoosiers’ sweep of the Cardinals. Murdy won 6-3, 6-2.The Hoosiers were able to get other players court time in the Ball State match.“We are eight players deep, so we were able to keep engaged,” Loring said. “It’s not like basketball, where you can play someone for 10 minutes and take them out.”These wins extend the Hoosiers’ streak to seven, which Loring said wasn’t surprising.“It’s where we should be,” Loring said. “If it was up to us, we would be 7-1.”
(02/09/12 3:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A plethora of red shirts will enter the door of the IU Tennis Center as IU plays Miami of Ohio and Ball State this weekend. On Saturday, the Hoosiers will try to extend their five-match win streak, in which they have outscored opponents by a combined total of 33-2. The team will play the Miami of Ohio Redhawks at 11 a.m. and the Ball State Cardinals at 4 p.m. Miami of Ohio has a record of 2-3 this season, with losses to No. 71 Kentucky, No. 18 Vanderbilt and No. 59 Memphis. The Redhawks’ two wins this season are against the two teams the Hoosiers faced this past weekend, Xavier and Cincinnati. The Hoosiers defeated both by a combined score of 14-0, while Miami beat both by a combined total of 13-1.Miami of Ohio will have played against Furman on Friday prior to IU.In the second match of the day, the Hoosiers take on in-state opponent Ball State. The team from Muncie comes to Bloomington undefeated at 4-0. The Cardinals have defeated IUPUI, Dayton, Wright State and Detroit Mercy by a total of 27-1. Before IU, they play University of Chicago on Friday.Neither team is nationally ranked, nor do they have any players or tandems nationally ranked, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.The Hoosiers’ lone representative in the rankings is freshman Carolyn Chupa, who is ranked No. 79 in singles. Chupa’s doubles partner for much of the season has been fellow freshman Katie Klyczek. For the team portion of the schedule, they have gone 4-1 in doubles matches. Their only loss was against a No. 3 nationally ranked Duke squad.Klyczek said their success is no accident. “Chemistry is really important, and having chemistry is the difference between a lot of teams,” Klyczek said. “You have to feel comfortable with your partner on and off the court.”Klyczek said the No. 1 reason they will succeed when Big Ten play starts is the tight bond they possess.“This team has a good vibe,” Klyczek said. “We all get along really well. We want to get back to the top, and we have a lot of talent.” Klyczek said the main difference between collegiate and junior tennis is the feature of the team.“It’s different with the team aspect,” Klyczek said. “You’re playing for coaches and school. You want to win for each other.”The team aspect, which the IU program focuses heavily on, is one of the reasons Klyczek, who is from Munster, Ind., spurned Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado and Notre Dame to play for IU.“I came to IU because the coaching staff is great,” Klyczek said. “It’s also close to home, so my parents can come on the weekends to watch me play.”
(02/06/12 3:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Saturday, Feb. 4, the women’s tennis team traveled to Cincinnati to take on the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Xavier Musketeers.The Hoosiers lifted their overall record to 5-1 with wins against both schools. The Hoosiers beat Cincinnati by an overall score of 6-1.“This was a good road experience for the team,” IU Coach Lin Loring said. “The courts were fast, and we had to make adjustments.”Indiana captured the doubles point by not losing a doubles match. The freshmen duo of Carolyn Chupa and Katie Klyczek outlasted opponents Jasmine Lee and Ashleigh Witte 9-7.Sophmore Kayla Fujimoto and senior Evgeniya Vertesheva defeated Safiyya Ismail and Kristina Georgieva 8-2.In the final doubles match, senior Leslie Hureau and freshman Alecia Kauss took down Sierra Sullivan and Carly Wilson 8-2. In singles action, the results were congruent with the doubles play. Vertesheva won a tightly contested match against Lee 7-6, 7-5 to capture the win for the one spot. Klyczek was victorious in the two spot, winning 6-1, 6-3 versus Georgieva. The lone Hoosier loss of the day came at the three spot when Kauss was taken down by Witte 6-2, 7-5.The six slot was no contest for sophomore Sophie Garre as she defeated Wilson by only losing a single game.Later in the day, the Hoosiers faced off against the Xavier Musketeers.Xavier had not played a match earlier in the day like Indiana had, meaning that fatigue could have played a factor in the outcome, but it did not. Indiana defeated the Musketeers by the score of 7-0. The Hoosiers captured the doubles point early in the match and never looked back.The duo of Chupa and Klyczek won its second match of the day against Kally Alkire and Katie Pleiman 8-3. Vertesheva and Fujimoto also won their second doubles match of the day, winning against Allyson Westling and Daniella Patton 8-3.The Hoosiers went a combined 6-0 in doubles matches Saturday.In singles action, the Hoosiers did not lose a single match.Switching things up at the top, Hureau played the one spot and defeated Pleiman 6-0, 6-4. Securing the No. 2 slot, Vertesheva took down Patton 6-1, 6-2. At the three match, Chupa won the tiebreaker, stopping a comeback attempt by Wolf 6-0, 6-7, 10-4. Klyczek was victorious against Alkire 6-3, 6-3 in the four slot. Garre won against Lizzie Oosterbaan 6-3, 6-3 in the five match.After dropping the first set of the match, No. 6 Murdy took the tiebreaker from Westling 6-7, 6-1, 10-6. “We didn’t play our greatest tennis, but we competed well,” Loring said. “Hopefully we will learn from this and get better.”
(02/03/12 4:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This Saturday the Hoosiers travel to Cincinnati, where the women’s tennis team will embark on a doubleheader.Play will start with the team taking on the Cincinnati Bearcats at 11 a.m. The Bearcats will be searching for their first win of the season, as they have lost all three of their matches. They have been defeated by Notre Dame, Miami of Ohio and Bowling Green by the combined total score of 19-2.Later in the day, the Hoosiers will face off against the Xavier Musketeers. Play against Xavier commences at 4 p.m.The Musketeers bring a winning record into the second match of the day. With wins against Toledo and Detroit, Xavier will be looking for its third win of the season. The lone loss of the season for Xavier was at the hands of Miami of Ohio in which the Musketeers were shut out 7-0. Combining all of the matches Xavier has played this season, it stands at a record of 10-11 for team points.The element of fatigue could be a contributing factor for the Musketeers in this match.“Xavier will not have played a match in the morning, so they will be fresh,” IU Coach Lin Loring said. “That will make it more of a challenge for us.”In comparison, the Hoosiers come into play with a combined record of 21-7 for all team points. Six of the team point losses came at the hands of the No. 3 team in the nation, the Duke Blue Devils.Neither Xavier nor Cincinnati feature any nationally ranked singles players or doubles duos while the Hoosiers feature the No. 79 ranked player in the nation, freshman Carolyn Chupa.Indiana was victorious against both of these teams last year when they played.This doubleheader on the road is a sort of an oddity.“We normally do not play doubleheaders on the road,” Loring said. Traveling to Cincinnati was done on purpose, as the team wanted to play in as many road matches as possible to gain precious experience for this young team.“We specifically did this so our freshmen could gain experience playing road matches,” Loring said.Playing on the road when Big Ten conference play starts could be a challenge for this young squad. In tennis specifically, playing on the road can be a foreign and difficult task.“Any time you go on the road, you’re not sleeping in your own bed, and the travel is tiring,” Loring said. All tennis courts are different speeds, she said. For example, Michigan State has a wax floor, while Purdue has a brand new, slow floor.Getting the women used to different speeds and lighting is crucial so as to “get them out of their comfort zone,” Loring said.
(01/31/12 3:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The women’s tennis team picked up two victories, bringing its overall season record to the mark of 3-1.The Hoosiers played the Western Michigan Broncos and the Butler Bulldogs on Saturday. They defeated both opponents, 7-0.In the Western Michigan match, the ladies won 2-of-3 doubles matches, earning them the doubles point.The tandem of sophomore Kayla Fujimoto and senior Genya Vertesheva defeated its opponents 8-2. Sophomore Sophie Garre and freshman Shannon Murdy defeated their opposition 8-3.The lone defeat for the Hoosiers came at the hands of Bronco duo Nini Sujashvili and Kathleen Hawkins when they defeated junior Leslie Hureau and freshman Katie Klyczek 8-4.In singles action, the Hoosiers did not lose a single match. The winners in straight sets were Hureau, Vertesheva, Klyczek and Fujimoto.Freshmen Carolyn Chupa (No. 79 in the nation) and Alecia Kauss outlasted their opponents, winning the deciding third set to take their victories.Overall, the Hoosiers beat the Broncos by a combined total of 98-47.Later in the day, the Hoosiers took on their in-state neighbor to the north, the Butler Bulldogs. The team switched the lineup a bit, looking to gain more experience for the young team.The Hoosiers won every singles match in straight sets and all the doubles matches by wide margins.The winners in the singles matches were Vertesheva, Klyczek, Chupa, Fujimoto and Murdy. Kauss also vanquished her opponent, not losing a single game, and took the match 6-0, 6-0.In doubles action, the pairings of Chupa/Klyczek, Vertesheva/Fujimoto and Kauss/Murdy defeated their opponents by a combined total of 24-6 games.Overall, the Hoosiers defeated the Bulldogs by a combined total of 96-24 games played.IU Coach Lin Loring said he was very pleased with the outcomes of the matches.“We were confident we could beat both teams,” Loring said. “We were worried about Western Michigan because they always play doubles well.”The ability to play a high number of women in the two matches was beneficial for helping the team, which has five freshmen, to gain some valued experience, Loring said.“We were pleased with the weekend,” Loring said. “Eight different girls played, and when half the team is freshmen, you don’t know when you need them down the line for singles or doubles. It was a really good match.”The Hoosiers will look to push their team record to 5-1 and will continue their season Feb. 4 when they travel east to take on the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University tennis teams.The Hoosiers will play the Bearcats at 11 a.m. and the Musketeers at 4 p.m.
(01/27/12 5:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After splitting the two opening matches of the season, the IU women’s tennis team comes back to Bloomington to open the home portion of the schedule this Saturday. In the front end of a doubleheader, the Hoosiers will square off against the Western Michigan Broncos at 11 a.m.The Broncos opened their season with a 7-0 shut out loss to the No. 10 team in the nation, the Michigan Wolverines. Their second match was a shutout victory, 7-0, against the University of Detroit.Later that same day, the Hoosiers will play in-state rival Butler. Play for that match starts at 4 p.m. at the IU Tennis Center.This will be the opening match of the year for the Bulldogs.Neither Western Michigan nor Butler feature any nationally ranked singles players or doubles tandems. Going into matches such as these two, the players do not have the opportunity to scout their opponents.“We do not know who we are going to play going into a match,” freshman Carolyn Chupa said.No. 78 Chupa said being thrust into the match unaware of the identity of the opponent is the preferred way for her.“It’s better not knowing. You have a clear mind, and you’re not thinking a lot about other things,” Chupa said.After starting out the season 1-1 with a 6-1 loss to No. 3 Duke last week, Chupa explained what can be taken from a match like that.“The match score didn’t indicate how close the matches were,” Chupa said. “Duke played the bigger points better, but it was a great learning experience.”With five freshmen on the team, it was several members’ first experiences in a team collegiate match. Adjustments from high school or junior tennis have to be made to accommodate the skill level of collegiate tennis.“The team aspect is a lot different, because in junior tennis it’s more about individuals and tournaments,” Chupa said. “The level of talent is about the same, but the girls hit a lot harder in college.”This year in particular, team chemistry seems to be a strong point for the cream and crimson.“There haven’t been any internal problems, and you see that a lot with other teams,” Chupa said. “In some cases, players cannot get along with other players or with the coaches.”The positive environment, which not only promotes success in sports but also academics, is one of the main reasons Chupa spurned Michigan, Wake Forest and Florida State to come to Bloomington to play college ball.“The reason I came to IU was a combination of the tennis program and the business school,” Chupa explained. “I’m a direct admit to the Kelley School and that is not an opportunity that I could have gotten at other schools.”
(01/24/12 3:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The women’s tennis team kicked off its 2012 team schedule Sunday by traveling to Durham, N.C., to take on the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils and the UNC Greensboro Spartans.The action started at noon as the team faced off against a talented Duke team. The result of the match was a 6-1 IU loss. The only victorious Hoosier was sophomore Kayla Fujimoto. She defeated the No. 97 singles player in the nation, Annie Mulholland, 5-7, 7-5, 1-0 (10-8).In the other single matches, junior Leslie Hureau was defeated by No. 7 Beatrice Capra 6-3, 6-2. Senior Genya Vertesheva fell to No. 38 Hanna Mar 6-2, 6-2. No. 79 freshman Carolyn Chupa was defeated by Ester Goldfeld 6-2, 3-4 (retired). Freshman Katie Klyczek lost to No. 117 Rachael Kahan 6-1, 6-2. Freshman Alecia Kauss fell to No. 66 Mary Clayton 6-1, 6-1.In doubles matches, the Hoosiers lost all three matches. Fujimoto/Vertesheva fell to Capra/Kahan 8-2. Chupa/Klyczek lost to Clayton/Goldfeld 8-6. Hureau/Kauss were defeated by Mar/Monica Gorny 8-5.“I am pleased with our effort at Duke. We put ourselves in a position to win the doubles point and couldn’t put it away,” IU Coach Lin Loring said. “We were up 6-4 at No. 2 and 5-3 at No. 3 with points to go up 6-3. The singles scores were much closer than they appear. “It’s tough to open on the road with half of your roster being freshmen against the No. 3 team in the country, but we played well.”The later match of the day saw the Hoosiers pick up their first team win of the season. They defeated UNC Greensboro 6-1. The day saw freshmen Shannon Murdy, Klyczek and Kauss pick up their first wins of their collegiate careers in team play.Hureau defeated Dilara Yurtkuran 6-3, 6-1. Klyczek won her match against Alex Whitehead 6-1, 6-2. Kauss won a tightly contested match with Lucy Dougherty 6-4, 7-6 (5). Murdy won her match against Annette Rios 6-2, 6-4. Sophomore Sophie Garre was victorious in her match against Stephanie Falcon 6-2, 7-5. Vertesheva’s comeback came up short, causing her to lose her match in tiebreaker fashion against Nitooli Wilkins 1-6, 7-5, 1-0 (11-9).Winning two of the three doubles matches, the Hoosiers secured the doubles point. Chupa/Klyczek beat their opponents Whitehead/Yurtkuran 9-7. Kauss/Hureau were also victorious in their match against Devon Sutherland/Kayla Gammie 8-1. The tandem of Vertesheva/Fujimoto fell to the No. 40 doubles tandem in the nation Wilkins/Dougherty 8-5.“UNC Greensboro was a great match,” Loring said. “We were very tired and had to fight the whole match. We could have easily lost it, but it was a great win on the road.”The Hoosiers continue their season Saturday, Jan. 28, when they play host to Western Michigan and then to Butler.
(01/20/12 3:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The lady Hoosiers will open up team play Sunday in Durham, N.C. The team will kick off the season against Duke University, which is ranked No. 3 in the nation, at noon. Just a few hours later, the team will suit up again to play UNC Greensboro. Play against the Spartans will commence at 5:30 p.m.According to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s rankings, Duke features six of the top 125 singles players in the nation. These players include No. 7 Beatrice Capra, No. 35 Monica Turewicz, No. 38 Hanna Mar, No. 66 Mary Clayton, No. 97 Annie Mulholland and No. 118 Rachel Kahan. The Blue Devils also feature two of the top 60 doubles pairs in the country. These tandems include No. 7 Capra and Ester Goldfeld, and No. 46 Mulholland and Mar.UNC Greensboro features the No. 40 doubles pair in the nation, Nitooli Wilkins and Lucy Dougherty.Comparatively, the Hoosiers’ lone representative in the top 125 players in the country is freshman Carolyn Chupa, who is ranked No. 79 among her peers. IU features no nationally-ranked doubles pairings.With five of the 10 team members this season being freshmen, lone senior Genya Vertesheva said her role has changed from previous years.“I have to be a lot more responsible because I am the team captain and organize everyone. I have to be a role model especially with five freshmen who try to look at you all the time, I have to be ready to help,” Vertesheva said.When going up against one of the top teams in the country for an opening match, Vertesheva said confidence is vital. “I will tell them to be confident. We have a really good team this year,a lot of things have changed, and we practiced hard so I will tell them to be confident,” she said.Looking forward to the rest of the season, Vertesheva said she feels optimistic about the team this year.“I feel really good, even though we have five freshmen,” Vertesheva said. “I compliment all the freshmen for working hard. They did a really good job. All of us are unified, we have good team chemistry.”With the plethora of players compared to previous years, she said this gives the team more versatility and flexibility, especially when it comes to doubles matches.“We have more doubles combinations, and this will help us a lot. All of us are ready to go and compete this year,” Vertesheva said.
(01/17/12 3:20am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The women’s tennis team spent the three-day weekend at the IU tennis complex playing host to the IU adidas Winter Invitational. The Hoosiers squared off against Louisville, Marquette and Missouri during the invitational. This event was an chance for the team to shake off the rust for the first time this semester after long winter break. The Hoosiers collected 12 wins Saturday. The winners of the singles draws from day one included freshman Carolyn Chupa, who is the No. 79 player in the nation, junior Leslie Hureau, senior Geniya Vertesheva, freshman Katie Klyczek, freshman Alecia Kauss, freshman Ariel Beckerman and sophomore Kayla Fujimoto. In doubles action, the Vertesheva and Fujimoto pair went 2-0 Saturday. The other victorious double pairings were Chupa and Klyczek, Hureau and Kauss and sophomore Sophie Garre and freshman Shannon Murdy. Two Hoosier pairs picked up doubles titles Sunday. The pairing of Vertesheva and Fujimoto won the Crimson Doubles Draw, going a perfect 3-0. Garre and Murdy took the title in the Red Doubles Draw after winning the tiebreaker of best winning percentage of all games played.In the singles draw, the five Hoosiers to pick up wins were Hureau, Chupa, Vertesheva, Murdy and Klyczek.Day three of the invitational was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and crowned the champions of the singles draws. Klyczek was victorious in her match, winning a marathon tiebreaker 20-18 after splitting the first two sets. Vertesheva won her match in straight sets, going 3-0 for the singles tournament. She did not lose a match in singles or doubles action this weekend. Garre also won her match. After splitting the first two sets, Garre won her tiebreaker 10-8. Kauss lost two games in her final match of the day, winning in straight sets.During the three days of action, the Hoosiers went a combined 27-18 in singles and doubles matches, for a winning mark of 60 percent.“Overall, it was a good weekend for us,” IU Coach Lin Loring said. “Since we had some time off with finals and winter break, we needed to play some matches before we started the dual schedule, so this weekend was exactly what we needed. “As a team, we are pretty sore right now, but we should be fine for next weekend when we open our dual match season,” Loring said.The Hoosiers will kick-off the team schedule Sunday, Jan. 22, with a double-header. The team will play against the No. 3 team in the nation, the Duke Blue Devils, at noon, and then will square off against UNC Greensboro at 5:30 p.m. in Durham, N.C.
(01/13/12 5:03am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU women’s tennis team will take the court for the first time in five weeks to participate in the adidas Winter Invitational from Saturday to Monday in Bloomington. This will be the first time the team competes this semester after finishing the calendar year at the Western Michigan Invitational in early November.IU Coach Lin Loring said the significance of this event “is to get as many matches in as possible, especially not being together as a team for five weeks.”The NCAA rules indicate a team can only have 25 “play days” during a season. Three-day tournaments such as this count as one play day. When team play begins, playing two matches on the same day will count as one play day as well.Loring said invitationals such as this can be perceived as the preseason for the tennis season. These matches will not be reflected in the team’s win-loss record, but the results do matter to a player’s individual ranking in the NCAA.In the invitational, each player is guaranteed seven matches, three of the matches being singles and four being doubles.All the matches will give the Hoosiers experience, especially with half of the team being freshmen.“We open with (No. 3) Duke next week so we really need this week,” Loring said.With this being the last chance to play matches against competition until team play opens up against Duke and UNC Greensboro on Jan. 22, Loring said he expects two of his veterans to step up.“Genya (Vertesheva) and Leslie (Hureau) were All-Big Ten selections last year, so I expect them to be the team leaders this year,” Loring said.Lone senior Vertesheva leads a young team heading into the season. Hureau is the only junior, with sophomores Kayla Fujimoto, Sophie Garre and Diana Kyllmann coming back for their second seasons playing for the Hoosiers.The team has five freshmen on the team this year. Ariel Beckerman, Carolyn Chupa, Alecia Kauss, Katie Klyczek and Shannon Murdy continue their freshman campaigns this weekend.Vertesheva and Hureau will lead the Hoosiers beginning play at 11 a.m. Saturday and continue until the last match, which starts at 4 p.m. On Sunday, the action begins at 10 a.m. and continues until the last match begins at 3 p.m. On the final day of the tournament, the deciding matches for the singles tournament will begin at 9 a.m., and the final matches of the tournament will begin at 10:45 a.m. All matches will be in the IU Tennis Center.The other three competing schools are Louisville, Missouri and Marquette.
(11/09/11 4:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Kiwan Lawson from Columbus, Ohio, was an All-American IU track and field athlete. While running for the cream and crimson, he set personal records and gained national awards. This former long jumper has now made the leap from the track to dominate another of his passions: music. He is now the CEO of Music Legion Group.Lawson said being a former track athlete has helped him in the business world.“Track and field has a different feel to it than other sports,” he said. “It is such an individual sport that has a team outcome. It has a certain bluntness to it. Either you have it or you don’t.”Lawson’s accomplishments on the track are a testament to how he “had it.” He was a Big Ten Champion in both indoor and outdoor long jump and set personal and national records for both events in 2007 and 2008. Like any collegiate athlete, Lawson had to balance his academic life with competing for the Hoosiers. He said he had to endure some stereotypes in the classroom because he was an athlete.“Some people definitely have those stereotypes of ‘Oh, he’s just another dumb jock,’ so I had to prove them wrong,” he said.Lawson defied athlete stereotypes of double majoring in partying and sports by maintaining a focus on his studies. He has advice for athletes who wish to avoid the stereotypes and achieve academically.“Get to class early, sit in front, ask questions and if you’re struggling, tell the teacher,” Lawson said. “You’ll earn the respect from your professor and your peers by doing that.”Lawson attributes his success at Legion Music Group to his attention to balance and integrity.“We do everything from marketing, security, videos, recording studios, web design, artist development, DJ development, anything that involves the music industry,” he said.Lawson rose to the head of this company by age 27. He started as an intern for Legion, but “being at the right place at the right time,” a passion for music and hard work led him to the top.He got started running programs in high school, organizing many hip-hop music events for his school when he was a senior, and he hasn’t stopped working with the genre ever since. This constant work and dedication to his passion for music was evident to those who observed his climb up the corporate ladder. People who know Lawson said it is fitting that he has achieved success so young.“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Jeff Huntoon, associate head coach of track and field. “He always conveyed a lot of confidence and was pretty good at talking and working with people.”Despite the success, Lawson is still focused on higher education, and he said he sees the value a degree has in the business world.“I’m still pursuing my law degree,” he said. “Hopefully, I will be able to represent people in the future. Plus, it is always good to have a backup plan. Your company might fail but having a degree never will.”Lawson is currently working on his thesis about the displacement of African Americans by Hurricane Katrina.“New Orleans still needs help,” Lawson said. “Everything has not been restored to what it was yet.”This concept of outward vision isn’t something new for Lawson. He has been involved with community service for some time, even during his early years as a college student. His work on campus began when he approached Eric Love, the director of the Office of Diversity Education at IU, with a fundraiser idea.“It surprised me that someone so young put forth that amount of effort into community service,” Love said.This passion for service translates back to Lawson’s work with Legion. Lawson and his company have been in the hip-hop news lately as his premier client, Rikk Reighn, released his video on one of the biggest hip-hop forums on the Internet, WorldStarHipHop.com.The site has recently gained attention for becoming the rap community’s source for finding and displaying talent. For one day, Rikk Reighn’s video was the main feature on the site, an honor artists such as Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy have all enjoyed.“This is obviously a huge milestone for our company that we are thrilled about,” Lawson said.As of Oct. 19, Rikk Reighn’s “Good and the Bad” video had more than 3.3 million views, and his music can be found on iTunes. Lawson marked this as a huge accomplishment for Legion, which he is working diligently to expand throughout the next few years.
(11/07/11 5:01am)
The Hoosiers participated in the Western Michigan Invitational in
Kalamazoo, Mich. The team finished with five wins in singles play.
(11/04/11 4:18am)
The team travels to Kalamazoo, Mich., to participate in the Western Michigan Invitational taking place Friday through Sunday.