Season comes to a close at Big Ten Tournament

The IU women’s tennis team ended its season with a 4-0 loss to No. 19 Northwestern on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.

The Wildcats (19-7, 9-1) took the doubles point with a pair of 8-4 wins at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. Northwestern then took the first three singles matches in straight sets to clinch the victory.

The other singles matches were abandoned once the outcome was decided. IU senior Myriam Sopel was leading her No. 6 match 6-2, 4-2 when the match was stopped. IU senior Katya Zapadalova was winning in the second set after losing the first, and IU junior Evgeniya Vertesheva was down 2-1 in the second set after losing the first in a tiebreaker.

IU coach Lin Loring also was complimentary of the play of sophomore Leslie Hureau, who lost 6-2, 7-5 at No. 1 singles to Maria Mosolova, the 13th-ranked player in the country.

“This time we were really, really competitive at four singles spots, which I was really pleased with,” Loring said. “Leslie got down 3-0 the first set but played Mosolova, who’s been one of the top college players in her four years, really even after that.”

The Hoosiers faced the Wildcats after knocking off Penn State 4-0 on Thursday in the first round of the tournament. IU had faced Penn State at home just four days earlier, with the Hoosiers winning 6-1 in a match that featured four three-setters.

Loring said the Hoosiers improved on their regular-season results in both of their conference tournament matches. Northwestern beat IU 6-1 on April 16 in Evanston, Ill.
“We really handled (Penn State) pretty well on a neutral court only four days later,” Loring said. “And then in the Northwestern match, we were right with them in four of the matches. I thought it was a good tournament just because we played much better against each of the teams than we did in the regular season.”

On Thursday, Hureau and Vertesheva were each named First Team All-Big Ten for the second consecutive year.

Loring said it was a big accomplishment to have two players voted onto the team despite IU’s seventh-place finish in the Big Ten this season.

“Just the fact that there’s 11 Big Ten teams, and they pick 12 players, for someone who didn’t finish in the top half of the conference this year, it just speaks to what kind of year they had and what kind of regard the other coaches have for them,” Loring said.