Team loses to Auburn, fails to advance

The IU women's tennis team served up the usual this past Saturday -- strong doubles play and porous singles play -- in a 4-3 heartbreaker to Auburn in the NCAA Regional semi-finals. \nA team that has been hampered by injuries all season long, especially down the final stretch, it has relied heavily on the team doubles point but been unable to count on singles to ice matches. The result has been a dreary 4-5 team record in April and May, and four 4-3 losses, including the most recent season-ending loss to Auburn.\n"It was really a mirror of our season," coach Lin Loring said of the Auburn match. "We were great in doubles play, struggled in singles." \nLoring attributed much of the discrepancy to injuries. He said it was easier to juggle the doubles line-ups and produce the two wins necessary for the doubles team point than to compensate for injuries in singles. He also said injuries have made it difficult for players to condition, something that hurt the team playing under the Nashville sun after weeks of overcast weather.\n"It was hot and humid," No. 1 doubles player sophomore Linda Tran said. "Conditioning was probably a factor." \nTran and doubles partner junior Karie Schlukebir, who will compete in NCAA doubles competition, agreed the conditioning woes (mainly due to injury and not weather) were nothing new for the young team.\n"It was like the rest of the season," Schlukebir said. \nAnd it was the same for the team, the duo of Tran and Schlukebir and one upstart singles player -- freshman Inga Radel.\nAfter powering out of the gates with eight wins at the beginning of the season, IU faltered against tougher competition and was KO'd by the monster of mediocrity as injuries left few standing. In fact, IU had to forfeit two singles matches early in the season because there were not enough uninjured players to fill the slots.\nBut glimpses of brilliance were provided by the doubles team of Tran and Schlukebir and singles player Radel. The duo pointed in the Auburn match, along with the last 14 of the season, and Radel won her final 15 matches in a row after battling injuries to move from No. 6 singles to the No. 1 singles spot.\nTran and Schlukebir, who are 34-9 overall, shut out Auburn's duo of Katia Illarionova and Carolina Maurer 8-0, while Radel capped her 30-3 season with a dominating 6-0, 6-3 straight-set victory over Katia Illarionova. The No. 3 doubles team of senior Amanda Field and sophomore Martina Grimm also won with an 8-6 victory over Auburn's Liz Sauerborn and Sarah Suitor to secure the team doubles point. The win marked their sixth in a row.\nThe only other team point on the day came from Tran who won handily (6-0, 6-1) at No. 3 singles against Carolina Ramirez. \nVanderbilt eventually won the tournament they hosted. The Commodores blanked Murray State in the semifinals, then swept Auburn in the finals 4-0 to advance to NCAA national finals in Palo Alto, Calif. Like the No. 4 seed Commodores, not a single seeded team (of 16) failed to win their Regional.\nTran and Schlukebir will also make the trip to Palo Alto, leaving this weekend and competing on Tuesday. The two said they were disappointed with team play in Nashville, but were excited about the prospect of making their mark at nationals.\n"We have a lot of confidence," said Tran of the red hot duo. "Depending on the draw, I think we can do really well - be an All-American by the end of the weekend." \nThe duo is the 20th in IU history to make the national tournament. The two join 31 other teams who will compete for the same honors, with the top eight teams earning All-American status.