Tennis team to face stiffer test in invitational

The women's tennis team continues its season this weekend in the Hoosier Classic Invitational. Five teams from around the country travel to compete with IU in what will be a stiffer test for the Hoosiers than the Indiana Fall Invitational.\nKansas State, LSU, Marquette, Middle Tennessee State and Ohio State join the Hoosiers for matches in a format that is the same as three weekends ago. No team points are handed out; the Hoosiers play singles and doubles matches. Coaches are given another opportunity to evaluate the progress of their teams as they head to the start of conference seasons in January.\nIU dominated the invitational three weekends ago, but coach Lin Loring said he expects challenges from each team.\n"KSU is very good, and Ohio State was the regular-season Big Ten champ," he said. "LSU made the Sweet 16 of the NCAAs, and Marquette is always a good Midwest team."\nIU has faced LSU, Marquette and Ohio State in the past, but this will be the Hoosiers' first meeting with Kansas State and Middle Tennessee State. The Hoosiers are 3-0 against LSU and 5-2 against Marquette, including a 7-2 win against them last year. IU is 25-3 against Ohio State, but the Hoosiers were beaten 4-3 in Big Ten play last year.\n"This will be much harder because the teams coming to the tournament are a lot better," junior Karie Schlukebir said.\nAt the Fall Invitational, Loring used several lineups, and he plans to experiment again this weekend as the Hoosiers try to find winning doubles competitions. The singles lineup might also be altered because senior Kelly Blanch turned an ankle at the last tournament and has just begun to practice again. \n"This tournament will be tougher," freshman Linda Tran said. "We just want to have another good showing and hopefully play up to our abilities."\nIn the last tournament, five Hoosiers won their singles matches. Loring said he wants to make sure the team continues to improve.\n"After the last tournament, everybody set down two things that they wanted to make better, so we will be working on individual things this weekend," he said.