Hoosiers prepare to face top competition in NCAA championships

The women's tennis team looks to finish what they tried to do last year: make it through the Regionals and advance to the Championships. \nThe team was given an at-large berth to the 2002 NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championships last Thursday. This is the team's 20th appearance in the Championships in the past 24 years. Last year, the team lost to Washington State in the Regionals, 4-0.\nThe women will compete at Vanderbilt Friday, where they will battle Auburn (14-6) in the regional matchup. Vanderbilt (25-4) will host Murray State (17-9) in the other Regional competition.\nThe NCAA Division I Women's Tennis tournament is a 64 team field at 16 regional sites with the top 16 teams serving as hosts. The field is comprised of 31 conference champions and 33 at-large qualifiers. Five Big Ten teams qualified for the tournament, including Northwestern, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan and IU.\nThe winner of the 16 regional competitions will advance to the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championships at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium in Stanford, California, hosted by Stanford University. The team championship will be held May 16-19.\nJunior Karie Schlukebir and sophomore Linda Tran's duo became the 20th Hoosier team to be selected for the NCAA doubles Championships. The tandem was one of 32 teams selected for the competition. Schlukebir and Tran own a 33-9 record and have won their last 13 matches. \nLast week, two of the team's varsity players were also recognized with individual awards after the Big Ten announced its honors. Senior Amanda Field was named Big Ten Sportsman-of-the-Year and freshman Inga Radel was awarded the Big Ten Freshman-of-the-Year.\nField was the first Hoosier woman to win the award since its inception in 1987. Field achieved four year stand-out recognition with an overall singles record of 78-65, and an overall doubles record of 88-40.\n"It's an honor," Field said. "It's always great to be recognized."\nAs the captain for the team, Field helped lead them to the NCAA berth. \n"It was great trying to motivate the younger players and also play well myself," she said.\nRadel, in her first season in Bloomington, finished with a singles record of 29-3, along with going 12-0 in conference matches. She also went 23-7 in doubles with a 7-4 mark in Big Ten play.\n"For Inga, it is a really nice compliment on a great season," coach Lin Loring said in a prepared statement. "She started the season low in our line up because of injury, but slowly worked her way up to the No. 1 singles spot. She went undefeated in conference singles, and had a good doubles record. I think those two things combined got her chosen by the coaches."\nField agreed with her coach, saying her teammate truly came through in a leadership role.\n"She came in with the ability," Field said, "so I really can't take much of the credit for her award"