Indiana women’s tennis began its season with a dream start, taking four wins across two doubleheader matchups and receiving contributions from every member of the team. That dream slowly dissipated Sunday as Indiana suffered its first defeat of the season against Yale University in Bloomington.
The challenges began immediately for Indiana when it was unable to come away with the doubles point — something that had not occurred in any of its previous matchups this year.
The No. 2 doubles pair of freshman Sarah L’allier and sophomore Nicole Teodosescu lost 6-2 to Yale freshman Orly Ogilvy and junior Mirabelle Brettkelly, and the No. 1 doubles match featuring Indiana graduate student Lene Mari Hovda and redshirt junior Lara Schneider was a 7-5 finish in favor of Yale freshmen Shyla Aggarwal and Erin Ha despite numerous comeback attempts from the Hoosier duo.
Indiana’s only victory in the doubles matches came on the No. 3 court when the new pairing of freshmen Elisabeth Dunac and Li Hsin Lin defeated junior Jamie Kim and sophomore Ann Wright Guerry 6-2.
Indiana head coach Ramiro Azcui’s decision to pick this partnership was partially due to graduate student Saby Nihalani — Lin’s typical partner — missing the match due to illness, he said afterwards. However, Azcui’s confidence in his freshmen was another reason to form the doubles pairing.
“I’ve been so proud of the freshmen class that I really felt like the freshman class could do it,” Azcui said after the match. “We tried to model a little bit in practice the other day just to see what they could do. Really proud of how they stepped it up and were able to win that.”
Yale’s dominance continued to the singles matchups as it pulled victories in five of the six matches. Despite the losses, Indiana fought until the very end in each match, and Azcui felt his team’s resolve was encouraging, even in a loss.
“I think not winning the doubles point really hurts and takes the momentum out of us,” Azcui said. “Yale did a great job – I think they played really well one through six, all the way through the lineup. We just had to do a better job, but [I] was actually very happy to see that they were fighting at the end.”
The lone bright spot for Indiana’s singles matchups appeared on the No. 5 singles court. Building off her confidence from the doubles win, Dunac defeated sophomore Sophia Zaslow 7-5 in a competitive first set and 6-2 in a dominating second set. The win brought Dunac’s record to 4-0 in singles play to start the year, making her the only Indiana player to remain undefeated in that regard.
“I’ve been developing a good rhythm in this season because, in the fall, it was a little bit shaky getting used to the college format,” Dunac said after the match. “Now I think I’m getting into a good rhythm and feeling comfortable.”
Building on the positives of the matches and learning from its mistakes will allow Indiana to stay competitive against tough competition in the future, and Azcui found both positives and negatives to take away in the matches.
“I think everybody stepped it up,” Azcui said. “The freshmen keep doing a good job. We just have to be a little more disciplined.”
Discipline could play a major role in Indiana’s next outing against West Virginia University, a team yet to be defeated this season. The matchup will take place on Friday in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Follow reporter Mateo Fuentes-Rohwer (@mfr0617) for updates through the Indiana women’s tennis season.
