IU smashes into Big Tens

The IU's women's tennis team will take on No. 47 Purdue in the opening round of the Big Ten Championships at 10 a.m. today at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill. \nThe No. 42 Hoosiers (17-7, 7-3) enter the tournament as the No. 4 seed and will look to earn their 17th Big Ten title and first tournament championship since 1998.\nIU has beaten Purdue (12-9, 6-4) in their three previous post-season meetings and also defeated the Boilermakers 5-2 in their regular season match-up March 24 at the IU Tennis Center. In that match, IU narrowly won the doubles point and put the match away with their depth at singles.\nIU coach Lin Loring said today's match will be a toss up.\n"It's going to be a totally different match (than the one in the regular season) because were going to be playing outdoors," Loring said. "Some of their players have been playing good at the end of the season, and some of our players have struggled the last two weeks. I think it's anybody's match."\nIf the Hoosiers advance, they will most likely face No. 1 seed and seven-time defending Big Ten champ Northwestern, which defeated IU 7-0 in the regular season. The Wildcats, ranked 11th nationally, will face the winner of eighth-seeded Penn State and ninth-seeded Minnesota in the quarterfinals.\nIU senior Sarah Batty said the Hoosiers feel good about their chances this weekend.\n"I would love to win the Big Ten tournament," Batty said. "We would have to beat Northwestern, but hopefully we have a good weekend and make a run at (earning a bid in the) NCAA Championships."\nLoring said the Hoosiers played "better than people thought" in the Big Ten this season despite losing last season's No. 1 player Dora Vastag to early graduation.\n"Everybody really has had to play one spot up from where they expected to play," he said.\nThe Hoosiers have had some recent setbacks in April, though, with close losses to Iowa and Michigan -- the No. 2 and 3 seeds in the tournament, respectively.\n"It was disappointing that we lost to the second and third place Big Ten teams the way we did," Loring said. "But we were competitive with every conference team except Northwestern. Iowa and Michigan just got away."\nThe team attributes part of this season's success to the chemistry it has had on and off the court.\n"I think our team has been closer this year than in years past," said Batty, who hosted a team cookout last week on the team's day off. "You're around these people all the time, so it makes everything a lot more enjoyable."\nThe 2006 Big Ten champion will be crowned Sunday and receive an automatic bid to the NCAA championships.