No. 2 Wildcats deal IU loss; Hoosiers respond with upset

This weekend's results weren't surprising for the Hoosiers in Bloomington, but the way the results played out might have been, as IU fell to No. 2 Northwestern but upended No. 35 Wisconsin.\nThe biggest match for No. 36 IU (10-8, 4-1 Big Ten) was its second match, Sunday's 5-2 win over the Badgers (10-5, 4-1).\n"This was a big win for us because Wisconsin has wins over Notre Dame and Michigan," said IU coach Lin Loring. "Today will be big come tournament selection time, even if we, heaven forbid, lose to Michigan and Northwestern."\nIt all started at the IU Varsity Tennis Courts with doubles play, as IU is 10-1 when capturing the doubles point, with the one loss a 4-3 nail-biter to Texas A&M.\nJunior Sarah Batty and senior Dominika Walterova got IU off on the right foot, handling things at the No. 1 spot with an 8-1 win, but senior Dora Vastag and sophomore Cecile Perton slipped at the No. 3 position losing 8-5.\nDown 7-3 at the time, the all-important doubles point rested on the shoulders of sophomore Laura McGaffigan and freshman Brianna Williams.\n"We just basically knew we had to be consistent against them," McGaffigan said. "We knew we had to get more balls in play."\nEvery point was in contention, and many times it seemed like a loss was knocking at the door, but after one hour and 40 minutes of play, the duo eventually battled its way to a 9-7 victory.\n"That obviously set the tone for the match," Loring said. "I'm just really proud of the second team -- they really gave us momentum."\nUp 1-0, the Hoosiers rolled on, posting only two losses in singles play.\nMcGaffigan pushed IU back on top 2-1 after Walterova fell at the No. 4 spot. She recorded win number 21 on the season.\nBatty then followed suit besting Laura McGaffigan's sister, No. 93 Katie McGaffigan of Wisconsin\n"It felt great," Batty said, "I've had so many close matches against ranked opponents."\nVastag then removed any hope Wisconsin had with her win at the No. 1 position over No. 100 Caitlin Burke.\nPerton rounded out the effort with a win (6-3, 6-4) from her No. 6 spot. \nBut two days earlier, different weather brought the match to a different setting, the IU Varsity Tennis Center, and also brought very different results.\nIU fell 6-1 to Northwestern (14-2, 4-0), losing every doubles match and every singles match with the exception of Williams' win at the No. 5 position.\nThere are currently six teams vying for second place in the conference under Northwestern -- IU, Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa, Loring said. With wins over Purdue, Illinois and now Wisconsin, Loring says that he likes how his team is looking.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Andy Romey at aromey@indiana.edu.