Hoosiers to compete in Vanderbilt Invitational

The IU football team won’t be the only athletes competing this weekend. The women’s tennis team will head to Nashville, Tenn., to compete in the Vanderbilt Invitational.\nAfter competing in the Hoosier Classic two weeks ago, the team has been hard at work perfecting both its singles and doubles play.\n“We’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on match play,” sophomore Erin Clark said. “As a team we’re just continuing working on doubles combinations.” \nIU did not fare so well at doubles at the Hoosier Classic. The Hoosiers took three of six singles flights in the Hoosier Classic but failed to capture a doubles flight. They have spent much of their time since then improving and working on different doubles combinations.\n“I think everyone is still experimenting,” Clark said.\nJunior Stephanie Heller agreed. “Hopefully we’ll do better at doubles this weekend than the last tournament,” she said.\nThe competition at the Vanderbilt Invitational includes host Vanderbilt, Arizona State, Kentucky, Middle Tennessee State and Tennessee-Martin. \n“Vanderbilt and Arizona State will be the two toughest teams in the tournament,” IU coach Lin Loring said. \nHis players are also aware of the challenges they will face over the weekend.\n“I expect we’ll have a lot of tough competitors,” Clark said. “Because we’re going to a totally different area of the country, we’ll see a lot of teams we won’t have played before.”\nEntering their third tournament of the fall semester, the Hoosiers have won three singles flights in each of their last two tournaments. \nLoring, however, is more focused on “seeing improvement in their play” than scoreboard results. \nFor the first time this year, the Hoosiers won’t be traveling as a whole team. Freshman Ekaterina Zapadalova will be sitting out the tournament due to a stress fracture in her foot. While this has caused some last-minute changes, the Hoosiers are adapting to her absence as far as doubles rotations go.\n“I think I’m comfortable (playing doubles) with any of the teammates,” Clark said.