Volunteers give Hoosiers second loss of season

A week after getting throttled by No. 6 Duke, the No. 44 IU women’s tennis team came close to upsetting No. 11 Tennessee Saturday, losing 5-2 in Knoxville, Tenn.

Despite losing all three doubles matches 8-4, the Hoosiers (7-2) were competitive in singles, winning two matches and losing three three-setters.

“We were really disappointed in the doubles,” sophomore Leslie Hureau said. “But we could tell that they weren’t so good. Like in the Duke match, they were just playing at another level. This time we were really fired up because we could see that they weren’t much better than us.”

IU senior Charlotte Martin picked up a win at No. 4 singles, and Hureau beat the Volunteers’ top player, Natalie Pluskota, 7-5, 6-3. Evengiya Vertesheva, Katya Zapadalova and Myriam Sopel all dropped three-set matches to Tennessee.

IU coach Lin Loring said he was worried with how the Hoosiers would adjust to Tennessee’s slower courts, but he came away pleased with the effort of his team.

“Out of the singles matches, we either won or went to three sets in five of them,” Loring said. “It doesn’t get much closer than that. I was obviously proud of the team with the way they were able to fight back and make it a good match.”

— Daniel Allar