IU women's tennis team strong in home invitational

The IU women’s tennis team concluded play for the fall with its second home tournament this year Sunday.

The Indiana Invitational brought DePaul, Western Michigan and Wisconsin to the IU Tennis Center to showcase their skills.

IU coach Lin Loring said his team had been working on movement during the past two weeks, which seemed to pay off in the results of the tournament.

The first day of competition started Friday with singles matches against Wisconsin. IU senior Sigrid Fischer had the most exciting match of the tournament when she faced Angela Chupa of Wisconsin. Fischer lost the first set 4-6, won the second 6-2 and won the tiebreaker 13-11.

On Friday, the Hoosiers matched up nicely against the Badgers, winning six of the eight singles matches against them, which was what they were hoping for.

“We just want to see improvement both teamwise and individually,” Loring said. “We just want to watch them play and see improvement in shot selection, effort and attitude.”

The Hoosiers also matched up against Western Michigan in doubles play. The tandem of Fischer and sophomore Katya Zapadalova defeated their opponents 8-3, and the pairing of Maria Guerreiro and senior Stephanie Heller also clinached a victory of 8-3.

Although the indoor tennis  center will host the team during the spring season, this weekend was the first time the team played on the courts for a match.

“I personally like playing indoor,” said senior captain Alba Berdala. “It makes it louder, and you can feel the support more.”

The Hoosiers supported each other strongly as they began Saturday playing doubles against DePaul. Fischer and Zapadalova matched up against the team of Dunja Antunovic and Katarina Milinkovic.

The latter team recently went to the finals in the ITA Regional Competition but lost. Although the matchup was a nail-biter, the Hoosiers prevailed 8-5.

In the second round of the singles play, IU faced Western Michigan and continued its strong play.

Sophomore Charlotte Martin, junior Lyndsey Stuckey, sophomore Myriam Sopel and Fisher all earned victories in their matches.

Fischer, who went 3-0 on the day, battled back from losing the first set to win in a tiebreaker 10-3. Sopel also fought to put her competitor away and won in a third-set tiebreaker 10-7.

In the third round of doubles, all three of IU’s tandems beat their competition. Fischer and Zapadalova played against Chupa and her Badger teammate Katya Mirnova and won 8-5, leaving them undefeated in doubles competition for the tournament.

Sopel and Stuckey faced Wisconsin’s Emese Kardhordo and Alaina Trgovich and won 8-5. The last team of Berdala and Martin faced Elizabeth Dolan and Erin Jobe and finished them off 8-4.

The competition appeared to be tough.

“We have played a lot of matches to get us ready,” Fischer said. “It’s a lot more competitive, and we want to do well.”

The Hoosiers finished their fall season on Sunday with two rounds of singles competition.

Berdala played against Kirsten Gambrell from DePaul and after losing the first set came back to win in a tiebreaker 10-8.

Heller also won her match 6-1, 6-2. She went undefeated at the tournament with two wins in singles and one in doubles.

Stuckey was perfect in singles competition, going 3-0.

Fisher did not win on Sunday, but she won five matches at the tournament with three doubles wins and two singles wins.