IU opens season in South with Georgia on its mind

While the rest of the student body sits in class, the IU women’s tennis team will be heading to Georgia on Friday to play in its first fall tournament.

This tournament allows the team to compete but does not count toward its overall team record. Instead it is a round-robin event in which the losing players go one way in the draw and the winners go another.

“In the preseason our goal is to get a lot of matches in,” IU coach Lin Loring said. “It will show us all of the flaws and, that will show us what we need to work on.”

It also allows IU to get a look at different players and adjust to NCAA rules, considering six Hoosiers are international players.

Although the team has a lot of foreign talent who might be adjusting to the United States, the team has experience with no new members. The same group of athletes were ranked in the top 30 at the end of the last season. This year, sophomore Charlotte Martin from West Midlands, England is ranked No. 121 in singles nationally.

“I came from a totally different country ... (the coaches) make it clear that we should be a team everywhere,” said Sigrid Fischer, a senior co-captain on the team and an Eisenberg, Germany, native. “As a freshman you are infused with the fact that you are a family.”

At the Georgia Invitational each player participates in three doubles matches and three singles matches. They play one double match and one single match on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The team plays Georgia, Duke, TCU, Ole Miss, Virginia and Wake Forest.

The excitement was palpable at practice, and senior co-captain Alba Berdala explained the atmosphere looking forward to the weekend.

“With each match we gain practice and gain the rhythm of the game back,” Berdala said.