The IUS women’s tennis team took home a big victory against the Oakland City University Lady Oaks on Sept. 29.
The Grenadiers dropped one match, bringing their final score to 8-1.
“Coming into the match, we knew that we’ve beaten teams they had lost to, so we knew we should win,” Emily McGrath, international studies junior, said.
Ryne Meece, the Lady Oaks head coach, said he was not surprised with the doubles results.
“We had some tough matches, and we didn’t look very good in the doubles,” Meece said. “That is something we’ve been struggling with all year.”
McGrath and her doubles partner Jessica Maxwell, elementary education junior, were the first off the courts, finishing their match at No. 1 doubles within 40 minutes and picking up the first point for the Grenadiers. McGrath and Maxwell finished out their set with an 8-4 victory against Lindsey and Whitney Malin of the Lady Oaks.
Closely following No. 1 doubles of the court was the No. 2 doubles team of Emma LaDuke, history senior, and Ashley Bunch, nursing sophomore. The pair beat Heather Uhl and Hailey Menke of the Lady Oaks. LaDuke and Bunch picked up the second point for the team, winning their set 8-2.
The final doubles team, Katie Morrison, nursing freshman, and Kelsey Wisman, secondary education senior, picked up another point with an 8-2 victory against Tabitha McKinney and Lauryn Schnarr.
“We got the job done,” Morrison said.
Morrison said she credited their doubles victory to the dedication and inspiration she gets from her partner.
“Kelsey really takes care of me,” she said. “She advises me and helps me. We’re pretty prepared for anything.”
Yancey Walters, IUS men’s tennis head coach, played the role of coach filling in for his wife, Jenni Walters, IUS women’s tennis coach. Yancey Walters’ expectations of the women’s team aligned with their level of play on the courts.
“We were expecting to do well because we have done well comparatively against them in the past, but [Oakland City has] improved a lot,” Walters said.
After finishing their doubles matches, the women went quickly into a standard singles best-of-three set match.
McGrath picked up the fourth point for the Grenadiers at No. 1 singles against Lindsey Malin. She said the win did not come easy to her.
“It was frustrating,” she said. “She was very consistent in getting everything back, but she didn’t have any weapons. It was one of those things where I just had to keep the ball in play.”
The Grenadiers continued bringing out big wins in the singles matches. Wisman defeated Schnarr at No. 2 singles winning 6-1, 6-1.
Bunch clinched a win in the first set with a 6-4 victory but dropped the second set 2-6. In a tiebreaker during the final set, Bunch prevailed with a 10-6 win.
Katherine Clark, business freshman, faced off against Whitney Malin at the No. 5 singles position and also had difficulty picking up the point for IU Southeast.
“Katherine didn’t have her best game today,” Yancey Walters said. “She wasn’t playing an opponent she enjoyed playing, but she got through it and got the job done. She didn’t give up.”
Clark eventually defeated Malin in three sets, picking up the first set 6-4, dropping the second set 1-6, and then pulling out a big win in the third set, 6-2.
Julia Blauvelt, journalism freshman, rounded out the singles matches with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Lenzie Kerchief.
Meece said he was happy with the way his team played against the Grenadiers and was being able to compete with a team of their caliber.
“[I knew] it was going to be a tough match,” Meece said. “I knew that they have won conference several years in a row. We are just a young team, we didn’t really know what to expect. We just wanted to come and compete and go from there.”
By HANNA WOODS
Staff
hrwoods@umail.iu.edu
