The Hoosiers took to the courts last weekend at the Western Michigan University Super Challenge and made their presence felt during the three-day competition, as three of the four IU double teams came away with a clean sheet on the first day.
The tournament organizers had to flip people around so the IU women didn’t compete against one another because they are on the same team.
Senior Kim Schmider and sophomore Madison Appel defeated Michigan State, 8-1, and Western Michigan, 8-5, to advance to the semifinals.
But they had to stop due to tournament rules because their opponents were none other than the Hoosier sophomore-freshman combo of Caitlin Bernard and Emma Love, who defeated a team from Michigan State, 8-4, and a team from Cleveland State, 8-7.
Appel said her chemistry with Schmider was the key to their success.
“We know each other’s game styles and what we’re going to do before every point,” Appel said. “We also communicate really well throughout the point. Calling the shots on who’s going to take what, that helps us a lot.”
On the other side of the bracket, senior Paula Gutierrez and freshman Pauline Jahren took down opponents from Western Michigan, Michigan State and Western Michigan, 8-4, 8-3, 8-5, respectively.
Although the Hoosiers had great success in doubles competition, they struggled in their singles matches.
“A good amount of our singles matches we didn’t play as well as we should be,” Loring said. “It was more mental than anything. Physically they were fine, but mentally they did not compete well.”
Appel said in the future the team will work on developing a better mindset so the players stay positive even through stressful periods of a match so performances improve.
The Hoosiers have two months until they compete again in January.
However, they won’t have much time to practice with coaches on the courts because NCAA rules dictate players can only spend three more weeks with the coaches at two hours per day.
The rest of the time is theirs to practice.
“In this limited amount of time left we are going to be concentrating on more of the mental of side of the game. Get some psychologists to come in to help them with that aspect,” Loring said. “As for the rest of the time they can train on their own. I’ll give them a plan for the holidays, but it’s up to them to take up pride in their game and work to improve.”
Appel and the rest of the Hoosiers know how vital it is to take matters into their own hands and train with one another during the break as they get ready for the spring season.
“It’s really important that we step up and work on things on our own with each other,” Appel said. “Scheduling our own practices and doing drills together that will benefit us. Just staying on top of our game and keeping up with the workouts and practices.”
