After two straight road losses, Indiana women’s tennis looked to get back in the win column with a pair of home games this past weekend. Indiana faced off against Cornell University on Saturday and then turned toward Xavier University on Sunday.
The Hoosiers lost two road matches in a row earlier this month, losing to the University of Kentucky and the University of Tennessee and falling to a record of 5-3 before the weekend.
Cornell started off the Saturday match with momentum, taking an early 2-1 lead by winning the first two singles matches of the day. However, Indiana was able to come back, led by both junior Rose Hu and freshman Lara Schneider, and jumped out to a 3-2 lead.
The Hoosiers were able to clinch the 4-2 win thanks to junior Alexandra Staiculescu. Head coach Ramiro Azcui said he was happy that his team was able to come back and get a win.
“I was very pleased,” Azcui said. “I thought it was a great team effort that we were able to come up with a win, because (Cornell) was a dangerous team. I wanted to make sure that we were ready for it.”
Related: [Indiana men’s tennis’ first road match yields poor results against Louisville on Saturday]
The following day Indiana played Xavier, but this time did not favor Indiana. Indiana almost won the doubles point match, but it wasn’t able to clinch in the match point, instead losing the doubles point in a tiebreaker to give Xavier the lead.
Xavier held on to that lead for the rest of the night, eventually winning the match 4-0. Indiana struggled in the singles round, either losing or being unable to finish all six of the singles matches.
The loss marked the third time this season that Indiana has been shut out.
“We actually had two match points that we couldn't convert,” Azcui said. “I think if we would have won the doubles point it would have been a different story.”
The Hoosiers record moves to 6-4 after the weekend, and they will remain at home in Bloomington, Indiana, for their next two matches on March 5.
Indiana will play the University of Cincinnati and Eastern Illinois University in the last two matches before playing its first match against a Big Ten opponent.
