Women’s tennis looking to upset high-ranked Northwestern

After picking up its first two conference wins last weekend, the IU women’s tennis team will play against No. 15 Northwestern at noon Saturday.

The Wildcats (14-5, 6-0) boast a lineup featuring four ranked singles players, including No. 13 Maria Mosolova. The Hoosiers (12-8, 2-5) have two ranked players, sophomore Leslie Hureau at No. 57 and junior Evgeniya Vertesheva at No. 114.

Hureau said the Hoosiers have to believe they can play with the favored Wildcats.
“Basically, we don’t have anything to lose so we just have to go out and really compete against them,” Hureau said. “Because sometimes when we play a really high-ranked team, we go there and try to win but we don’t have the same motivation. But I think this time we need to really go and try to win because obviously they’re a really good team, but I think we can still do something.”

IU coach Lin Loring said he is simply looking for his team to show improvement from match to match. He said Northwestern is tougher competition than last weekend’s opponents, but that the Hoosiers have seen it before.

“We’re definitely going to be ready for them,” Loring said. “We know what to expect. We know the level of play to expect. We just definitely want to see some improvement so we can finish this season on a good note.”