Seniors go out with win

The IU women’s tennis team lost 5-2 to No. 62 Ohio State on Saturday but picked up a 6-1 senior day win against Penn State on Sunday.

In the match against the Buckeyes, IU (13-10, 3-7) lost all three doubles matches and four of six singles matches to suffer the loss. IU’s top two players, Leslie Hureau and Evgeniya Vertesheva, picked up the Hoosiers’ lone singles wins in the match.

Against the Nittany Lions (6-15, 2-8), IU took the doubles point with wins at all three positions. The teams split the next two matches, with Vertesheva winning at No. 2 and freshman Kayla Fujimoto losing a three-setter at No. 4.

After the score was 2-1, IU won four matches for the final 6-1 margin. Four of the matches went three sets, and IU senior Myriam Sopel’s No. 5 singles match ended with Sopel taking the second set in a 9-7 tiebreak.

“Every single singles match was long,” IU coach Lin Loring said. “Myriam’s two-set match was longer than some of the three-setters. It was just a really good college match, and it could have gone either way.”

After the match, Sopel and fellow seniors Charlotte Martin and Katya Zapadalova were honored. Zapadalova, who has been battling a shoulder injury all year, sat out the match. Martin, bumped up to No. 3 singles by Zapadalova’s absence, took her opponent down 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

“There was a point when I thought maybe I wasn’t going to (win),” Martin said. “I didn’t start off that well in the first set. I was just struggling to find my rhythm a little bit, but I got it back pretty easily in the second. It meant a lot to be able to come out and win on senior day, and I think Myriam felt the same way.”