For the first time since 2012, IU defeated No. 41 Northwestern at 6 p.m Friday at the IU Tennis Center en route to a three-match winning streak.
The win put IU at 2-0 in Big Ten play and in sole possession of first place in the Big Ten standings, as many teams have yet to play more than one conference game.
“Northwestern is a team we’ve struggled with since I’ve been here,” Wurtzman said. “It was a great way to start this weekend.”
IU got a break before welcoming University of Washington to its courts at 11 a.m. Sunday.
Washington had a surprisingly dismal start to the season as they currently sit at 3-7 with its most recent losses coming to some of IU's Big Ten foes – Wisconsin, No. 17 Minnesota and No. 16 Michigan.
After its most recent loss at Minnesota, Washington made its way to Bloomington in hopes of getting back in the win column.
However, Wurtzman and IU had different plans.
IU went onto sweep Washington 4-0 with junior Zac Brodney delivering the clinching point. Brodney was also honored this week for having the team's highest GPA.
“It was nice to get the last point because the last few matches, I haven’t been able to finish down the stretch,” Brodney said. “We just focused on the goal of winning two matches.”
The Hoosiers ended up achieving their goal of ending the weekend 2-0, which moves their overall record to 7-6 on the season.
Next in line for IU comes an unlikely home-away weekend against two ranked teams. No. 38 Texas Tech University comes Friday to Bloomington, and IU will play No. 11 Illinois on Sunday afternoon.
These two matches are crucial for IU if it wants to continue its season-long goal of making the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2012.
“These last few weeks have given us that confidence to make that push for NCAAs,” Brodney said. “We have to beat these teams like Northwestern in order to beat some of the top teams in the conference.”
One of those top teams in the conference is Illinois, who IU will face next weekend. Illinois currently sits at No. 11 in the country, which is the second-highest in the conference behind Ohio State, who is No. 1 nationally.
