IU is looking to get the first wins of its season Saturday against VCU and Marquette.
The Hoosiers lost on the road to No. 10 North Carolina and No. 35 Drake but will now enjoy home comforts as they will play this weekend’s games at the IU Tennis Center.
“Nerves always come with matches, but it’s home so it’s a lot less,” senior Chris Essick said.
“We are excited for the crowd to be there, and the crowd’s been getting a lot better ever since I’ve gotten here.”
It was not all bad for the Hoosiers at North Carolina, as they said they believed they gave a good effort against two teams ranked above them.
While the Hoosiers did not win a doubles point last weekend, the team said they were still proud of their effort against Drake and North Carolina.
The Tar Heels boast the No. 1 doubles team in the country.
“We were close to beating two very good teams,” IU Coach Jeremy Wurtzman said.
“UNC was a tight match, and I felt that we were very competitive in a lot of sets. Against Drake we were also points away in the singles, and we even had match points in the doubles. Overall I don’t think that’s too much to be concerned about, it’s just part of the process to getting more match tough.”
The fall season generally features a more individualized competition, although a team-based points system determines the winner of a match in the spring. The Hoosiers are starting to get into their stride for the spring and will look to get some wins on the record for the season.
“We’ve only played two matches and practicing a lot since early January, and we are still getting our season going,” Wurtzman said. “There’s a ton of the season to be played. We will use last week as motivation and work harder for this week.”
IU will play VCU at 11 a.m. Saturday in the first match of its double header. VCU is on a four-game winning streak by beating Morgan State twice, Georgetown and Howard in the VCU invitational.
Marquette also won its first game of the spring season 5-2 against IUPUI on Jan. 22.
The Golden Eagles will face South Dakota State at home Friday before traveling south to Bloomington to take on IU at 6 p.m. Saturday.
IU has not faced Virginia Commonwealth before and the last time IU faced Marquette was during the 2006-07 season, which the Hoosiers won 6-1.
Wurtzman said he is not worried even though these teams are on winning streaks, and he said he believes the Hoosiers will learn about themselves on Saturday.
“They will obviously come with some confidence, but they haven’t played a ton of matches either,” Wurtzman said. “I think we will definitely be ready to go.”
