Coming off a 6-3 victory over the No. 32-ranked doubles team in the country from Notre Dame on Friday, the IU tandem of senior Kim Schmider and sophomore Madison Appel were set to take on yet another ranked opponent.
This time, it was the No. 1 doubles pair in the NCAA, playing for No. 25 Kentucky.
Junior Mami Adachi and senior Aldila Sutjiadi, the Wildcats’ top-ranked pair, came to Bloomington as the reigning National Indoor Intercollegiate Champions.
Schmider and Appel were unranked as a duo but had a record of 20-2 coming into the match.
“We were more confident going into this match after the win against Notre Dame,” Schmider said. “We played really well yesterday and just came in like any other match.”
The Wildcats took an early three to two game lead, but this was when Schmider and Appel turned up the intensity.
The team in cream and crimson rallied off three consecutive games to take a 5-3 lead, only needing one more to knock off the top team in the country. Kentucky was able to win the next game and stay alive at 5-4.
Appel was up to serve for match point.
She sent it across the net and Kentucky sent it back quickly, but Schmider was up at the net and was able to finesse a shot down the right side, and Kentucky was unable to get to the ball in time.
Schmider and Appel then celebrated with a hug as they beat the No. 1 team in the country 6-4, improving to 21-2 on the season.
“We’ve been looking for an opportunity to play ranked teams for a while,” Schmider said. “We’ve been playing so well against the other teams, and today we just stuck to the game plan and got two huge victories.”
Appel said the confidence level of her teammate Schmider will go up thanks to the pair of big wins, and that will in turn help Appel’s.
“For Kim, winning a lot and beating teams like this brings her up, which brings me up,” Appel said. “Starting off with these two big wins will help us down the road because we know we can compete with anyone.”
Despite being the underdogs for these two matches, Schmider and Appel will have a big target on their backs now, IU Coach Ramiro Azcui said.
The new rankings come out this week, and Appel said if they get ranked everybody knows what they have to do and that mentality should stay the same even with a number next to their names.
This is the first year Schmider and Appel have teamed up, and back in September, they were paired to be partners randomly.
“I believed that they would be a really good team together, and I think they have always believed it, too,” Azcui said. “I am really proud of the way they came out and competed this weekend.”
Schmider and Appel agreed it’s their stylistic differences that make them so effective on the court together.
Despite getting two big wins from the No. 1 doubles spot, IU took two tough losses in the overall match to Notre Dame 6-1 and Kentucky 4-0.
Although the scores seem lopsided, all the matches were closer than they looked on paper.
The Hoosiers have yet to play with a full lineup this season due to numerous injuries and illnesses throughout the team, which Azcui said complicates the week to week preparation for his team.
“It’s hard when a new girl each week gets hurt or sick,” Azcui said. “It speaks volumes to see how much we’ve improved, and I think we can play with anybody right now. We just need to get one or two big wins to take us to the next level.”
IU is now 5-5 on the season and will be in action again Feb. 25 against DePaul and IUPUI.
