Seniors look to finish with sweep

The IU women’s tennis team will host No. 62 Ohio State on Saturday and Penn State on Sunday, with both matches beginning at 11 a.m.

IU coach Lin Loring said despite the difference in records of the Buckeyes (13-9, 6-2) and the Nittany Lions (6-13, 2-6), both should pose an equally difficult challenge for IU.

“I think both matches are winnable for us,” Loring said. “I’m expecting a bunch of 4-3 matches, one way or the other. They’re both very winnable for us, but if we don’t play well, we could lose them both.”

The Penn State match will be the last regular-season matchup for the Hoosiers (12-9, 2-6) before the conference tournament. It will also be the final home match for seniors Katya Zapadalova, Myriam Sopel and Charlotte Martin.

Loring said the three seniors, all of them international students, have excelled both on the court and academically, despite Zapadalova and Sopel arriving four years ago with broken English.

Sopel said the seniors in particular want to finish this season off strong.

“Obviously we want to do well, maybe even more on senior day, because we want to thank all the fans and show our gratitude to everyone who has been supporting us for four years, in my case,” Sopel said. “It’s going to be really emotional, but we really want to get out with a win and finish on a great note.”