After sweeping its doubleheader on Friday, Indiana women’s tennis gained some momentum before traveling to face rival Purdue on Sunday afternoon. However, the Hoosiers could not continue their winning streak as they fell to the Boilermakers 4-2 at the Schwartz Tennis Center in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Indiana entered Sunday’s match with its record sitting at 5-4 on the season.
The Hoosiers had to play from behind yet again in the match after dropping the doubles point, a trend that has become all too familiar for this squad.
The first match to conclude was on the No. 3 doubles court, where junior Ashlie Wilson and freshman Ida Clement defeated the Indiana pairing of sophomore Elisabeth Dunac and junior Nicole Teodosescu 6-2.
The Hoosiers responded on the No. 2 doubles court when sophomore Li Hsin Lin and freshman Nicole Sifuentes prevailed over junior Fatima Gutierrez and freshman Kathryn Wilson 6-4.
The deciding match fell to the No. 1 doubles court. In a match that looked to be one-sided, with Purdue leading 4-0 early, redshirt senior Lara Schneider and freshman Marina Fuduric responded, winning four straight games for Indiana.
Ultimately, it was a pair of Boilermaker seniors, Tara Katarina Milic and Carmen Gallardo Guevara, who won the next two games to win the match 6-4. The win sealed the doubles point for Purdue.
The singles matches provided a chance for Indiana to come back and steal a road win to open Big Ten play.
That task got harder when Guevara defeated Teodosescu on the No. 1 singles court 6-0, 6-4 to extend the Purdue lead to 2-0. The margin grew even wider when No. 120 ranked freshman Ece Gencer knocked off Lin 6-3, 6-4.
Indiana then added another point on the No. 2 singles court as Schneider prevailed over Gutierrez 6-2, 6-0. The win improved Schneider’s singles record to 7-0 in her final season at Indiana.
Hoosier sophomore Magdalena Swierczynska cut the Purdue lead to 1 with her victory over Milic in three set fashion, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1. However, the Boilermakers would then seal the match with Clement’s three set win over Fuduric 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
With the loss, the Hoosiers fall to 5-5 on the season and 0-1 in the Big Ten. Indiana has one last non-conference match before going into the thick of conference play.
Indiana will return home at 4 p.m. Friday when it hosts the University of Illinois-Chicago at the IU Tennis Center in Bloomington.
Follow reporter Noah Gerkey (@Noah_Gerk) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s tennis season.
