The Indiana women’s tennis team went to Kalamazoo, Mich. over the weekend for the Western Michigan Super Challenge. Western Michigan, Penn State, Iowa State, Bowling Green, Notre Dame, Louisville, Marquette, and DePaul were also competing in the tournament.
The tournament was organized into eight singles flights and four doubles flights. IU came away with four singles champions and two pairs that won their doubles draws. Here is a look at all of the IU champions:
Singles
No. 1 Flight-Leslie Hureau-Sr.
No. 3 Flight-Katie Klyczek-So.
No. 5 Flight-Shannon Murdy-So.
No. 7 Flight-Jithmie Jayawickrema-Sr.
Doubles
No. 2 Flight-Carolyn Chupa/Katie Klyczek
No. 3 Flight-Alecia Kauss/Shannon Murdy
Overall, the Hoosiers were 19-5 in singles play and 9-3 in doubles action.
“This was a much more realistic tournament that the Bulldog Classic,” IU Coach Loring said. “In Georgia, we played a joint Georgia-Virginia team, which meant that our fourth best singles player was matched up against another team’s second best singles player.”
Loring said that the team has spent a lot of time practicing serving and returning hard serves but they can still improve in those areas.
“The biggest difference between the No. 20 team in the country and the No. 40 team in the country is that the No. 20 team serves with much more power,” Loring said.
He said that the coaching staff will only spend roughly six hours with the players over the next two months due to NCAA regulations as well as time off school because of Thanksgiving and winter breaks.
Indiana is heading into a two month break from competition until Jan. 11-13, 2013, when they resume tournament with the Adidas IU Winter Invitational. The team’s approach will change slightly in the next calendar year when dual matches begin.
“The women enjoy playing in dual matches,” Loring said. “But it gets tiring by the end of the season and we won’t have as much time off to practice in between dual matches like we do with our tournaments in the fall season.”
Andy Wittry 