No. 14 Notre Dame overpowers Hoosiers

The No. 41 IU women’s tennis team dropped a 6-1 match against No. 14 Notre Dame on Friday, losing two of three doubles matches and five of six singles matches.

Freshman Sophie Garre picked up the lone singles win at the No. 6 spot for the 10-3 Hoosiers, defeating JoHanna Manningham 6-2, 6-1.

IU senior Katya Zapadalova, the team’s No. 3 player, sat out the match to rest a shoulder injury with the hope of being completely healthy when Big Ten play starts this weekend.

IU coach Lin Loring said the Irish sat its No. 3 player as well once they heard Zapadalova was inactive.

Since both teams were playing without a starter, the match between Garre and Manningham was essentially a matchup between the teams’ top subs. Loring said Garre’s victory showed that the Hoosiers have a good backup option.

“Even though they’re going to finish (in the) top 10, it just shows we’re a lot deeper than they are,” Loring said. “They drop off a lot after their first six starters.”

The top three players in Notre Dame’s lineup were all nationally ranked and won handily against their IU opponents, but IU freshman Kayla Fujimoto lost a 7-6, 6-4 match at No. 4 and senior Myriam Sopel lost a three-setter at No. 5.

IU senior Charlotte Martin said the strength displayed by the bottom of the lineup is promising.

“A lot of dual matches aren’t won at number one and two singles, they’re won at five and six, so to know that we can have players picking up wins at the bottom of the lineup gives us a lot of confidence,” Martin said.