Indiana women’s tennis suffers back to back losses to Penn State, Northwestern

Indiana women’s tennis entered last weekend with a record of 9-9 and came out 9-11 after facing Penn State on Friday and No. 1. 37 Northwestern and Sunday. The Hoosiers dropped their two games and currently have a Big Ten record of 2-5.

The Hoosiers were on a six-day break after winning state-run No. 65 Purdue on April 2.

The Hoosiers faced a disappointing start to the game after losing two points and two wickets won by Penn State. Graduate student Gabby O’Gorman and runner-up Alexandra Nielsen won the first Penn State match, taking on young Indians Lexi Kubas and Rose Hu 6-1.

Indiana responded by taking the first singles match of the day to earn their own point of the day. Junior Mila Mejic put up a 6-1, 6-3 victory for the Hoosiers over second Karly Friedland. Penn State won the next four straight games, however, closing out the Hoosiers 5-1.

Sunday’s street game in Evanston featured for the first time Indiana playing an outdoor game in about a month after going to Charleston College on March 18th.

Related: [Indian men’s tennis match drops to Michigan State, Michigan head twice]

Indiana struggled from the start against Northwestern, losing two or three points all doubled. In the singles game, the Hoosiers continued to struggle to pick up points to get back.

New Redshirt Lara Schneider and Mejic both tried hard in their weakest games, taking the game into the third set. Schneider also made his first singles match and almost gave Indiana a point, but fell Northwestern senior Clarissa Hand 6-3, 6-3, 10-6. Mejic lost a graduate student Ema Lazic 7-5, 6-2, 11-9 in his singles game and was unable to score points at Indiana.

Northwestern scored three more points in the same games of a 4-0 victory. Indiana lost five games and lost sixth to close the gap on singles. The Hoosiers were unable to score points or win a game against the Wildcats and lose 7-0, the fourth time the Hoosiers have closed this season.

Indiana will take a five-day vacation before heading to College Park, Maryland to meet the Maryland Terrapins on April 15th.