Indiana Wins Opening Round Of Big Ten Championships

The seventh-seeded IU women’s tennis team defeated tenth-seeded Penn State 4-0 Thursday in Ann Arbor, Mich., to move to the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.

The Hoosiers (14-10, 4-7 Big Ten) won the doubles point to take an early 1-0 lead. With another tournament match taking up some of Michigan’s indoor courts, officials drew four numbers out of the hat to determine which singles matches would begin first.

IU coach Lin Loring said it couldn’t have worked out better for the IU squad. IU senior Myriam Sopel took a quick 6-0, 6-1 match at No. 6 singles, and freshman Kayla Fujimoto followed with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 5.

Loring said these wins put pressure on Penn State’s top two players, who each had to win to keep the Nittany Lions alive. Instead, junior Evgeniya Vertesheva scored the fourth and clinching match for IU at No. 2 singles, defeating Amy Simidian 7-5, 6-2.

With the match-up decided, the other three matches were abandoned. IU seniors Katya Zapadalova and Charlotte Martin were only midway through their first sets when IU clinched.

“It was kind of a great draw out of the hat for us,” Loring said. “Obviously the matches at five and six went really well because we won those quickly. Our two injured players, Charlotte and Katya, only played a little bit, so they got to warm up, but they didn’t have to play an entire match.”

The Hoosiers advanced to face second-seeded Northwestern (17-7, 9-1) Friday at 2 p.m.