Indiana University Athletics
Indiana University
Louisville
No. 33 Indiana Downs No. 68 Louisville, 5-2
3/19/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 19, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The No. 33 Indiana women's tennis team claimed its third win over a ranked opponent on March 19 in a 5-2 win over No. 68 Louisville at the Indiana Tennis Center. The Hoosiers improved their record to 11-4 by clinching the doubles point for the 11th time this season and winning four of the six singles matches against a hard-hitting Cardinal squad.
"I thought we played average today," Indiana head coach Lin Loring said. "You could tell that we haven't played a match in two weeks. We were a little rusty. Louisville had some hard-hitting players and our courts are prefect for that. I was pleased that we found a way to win, but overall our performance was average."
The Hoosiers claimed the doubles point for the 11th time this season by winning two of the three doubles matches against the Cardinals. Junior Cecile Perton and freshman Alba Berdala stepped off the court first at the No. 3 position after suffering an 8-2 loss to Louisville's Natalie Laszkowski and Suzanna Gracanin. The IU pair falls to 9-4 on the season.
By the same score at the No. 2 slot, sophomore Brianna Williams and freshman Sigrid Fischer easily topped U of L's Bianca Gorbea and Natalia Baez. The Hoosier duo improved its record to 12-3 this season.
With the double point knotted at one, senior Sarah Batty and junior Laura McGaffigan used a late match push to overcome Louisville's Maria Klokotzky and Robyn White, 8-5 at the No. 1 singles position. IU held the one point advantage for most of the match, but Louisville kept the contest close by tying the score on four occasions before the Hoosiers pulled away in the last three sets. Batty and McGaffigan improved their record to 12-3.
In singles, Indiana won four of the six matches. Batty stepped off the court first after claiming a 6-3, 6-0 win over Klokotzky at the No. 1 position. Batty, who trailed slightly at in the beginning of the first set, blanked Klokotzky in the second to improve her record at the one slot to 10-5.
Fischer, who played at the No. 5 singles spot, improved her record to 12-3 after defeating Laszkowski, 6-3, 6-1.
Williams sealed the match for the Hoosiers in the No. 3 position with a win over Gorbea. After blanking the Cardinal in the first set, 6-0, Williams held off Gorbea in the second, 6-4. The win improves Williams' record this season to 9-4 this season and 8-4 in the No. 3 position.
At No. 2 singles, McGaffigan dropped the first set, 6-1, to White. In the second, the Davenport, Iowa native fought hard but could not hang on and lost the match, 6-1, 6-4. McGaffigan's record is now 10-5.
Despite a late-match push from Berdala, the Geron, Spain product dropped a heartbreaker to Gracian in the contests only three-set mtach, 6-0, 5-7, 1-0(8). Berdala is now 8-7 on the season. At the No. 6 position, Perton topped Baez easily in the first set then claimed the match in a second-set tiebreaker to score IU's fifth point 6-0, 7-6. Perton improve her record to 8-5.
In exhibition singles play, freshman Marah Calvo defeated Stephania Velazquez in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2.
The Hoosiers look to improve their Big Ten record to 3-0 next weekend with a pair of league matches. Indiana will face arch-rival Purdue at 3 p.m., on Friday March 24, followed by its third conference opponent of the season in Illinois on Sunday, March 26 at 10 a.m. Both matches will be played at the Indiana Tennis Center.
Players Mentioned
