Rest was the key in this week’s preparation for IU’s upcoming three-match weekend where they will see Miami (Ohio) on Saturday and Western Kentucky and Evansville on Sunday.
The team overcame a number of challenges, including an injury to sophomore Natalie Whalen and illness that plagued several team members, during last Sunday’s dual match and was able to split the outcome. This time around the Hoosiers will have an extra match to play.
“We’re slowly getting better,” IU Coach Ramiro Azcui said about his team's health. “It’s not something that’ll just go away overnight, but I’m hoping in another week we’ll be completely healthy.”
Senior Paula Gutierrez said the team was fatigued after this past weekend and has used the first two days of this week as time to recover, while the next three days were preparation.
Miami lost to Cincinnati 5-2 earlier in the season, and IU defeated Cincinnati 5-1 last Sunday. Despite that, Azcui said this is going to be the toughest match for his team this weekend.
“Miami is a very dangerous team,” Azcui said. “The reason is because last year we beat them 4-3 here, and this year they have exactly the same lineup just in different positions; it’s going to be a challenge.”
Last weekend, Azcui inserted Whalen into the doubles lineup to try and get his team a spark. He said he plans to do the same this weekend to try and get that first crucial doubles point. The only downside to that is the number of matches Whalen can play are limited because of injury.
“Natalie can only almost play one match at a time,” Azcui said. “My goal is to include her in the Miami match to try and get that spark again and just plan the next two matches accordingly to how everyone is feeling.”
IU comes in with a 3-1 record, the best amongst the three teams it will play. This will be the first time, aside from fall tournaments, where they will play three different matches in one weekend.
“The goal this week in practice was not to overdo it and not to work them too hard,” Azcui said. “We are going to do everything we need to do to get ready for the matches, but I’m going to take it slowly because we need the energy for that third match.”
Gutierrez echoes that and said that the team needs to support one another for them to come away with three wins this weekend.
“We need to be stronger mentally because we are going to be really tired,” Gutierrez said. “The teams are really good so we need to be really positive and support each other.”
