The Indiana Hoosiers women’s tennis team had a solid showing at the Indiana University Tennis Center on Saturday and continued their strong play in 2011, winning their match against Marquette 5-2.

Indiana came into the matchup with Marquette having won their first three matches of the spring by scores of 6-1, 7-0 and 7-0. In addition, the players that competed against Marquette had a combined career singles records of 68-18 before play began. Those two sets of numbers are important heading forward for confidence reasons said senior Katya Zapadalova.

“We’ve really played well these past few matches and doing well in these really helps our confidence and our momentum before we play against some bigger schools like Notre Dame.”

Despite all the factors working in their favor, the Hoosiers fell short in doubles play to begin the day by a score of 8-6, 2-8, 8-6. Only freshman Kayla Fujimoto and junior Evgeniya Vertesheva claimed victory in doubles play, accounting for the lone Indiana win. Marquette’s 2-1 win in doubles gave them an early edge, but the tide would turn when the Hoosiers and Golden Eagles began singles play.

Indiana began singles play impressively, winning five out of six first sets. Vertesheva and sophomore Leslie Hureau were particularly dominant, notching victories of 6-2, 6-1 and 6-1 6-2 respectively. The rest of the team was pretty impressive as well with the only loss, by senior Charlotte Martin, coming in an abbreviated format after the outcome of the match had already been decided. Hureau won the first singles match to get the ball rolling but said it wasn’t that big of a deal to her.

“It’s nice to win the first match but with the other girls playing, it isn’t too big of a deal (who wins first).”

Fujimoto played well, earning a 6-3, 6-3 victory and Zapadalova succeeded in clinching the match with her 6-4, 6-2 victory.

“It’s not a big deal to me who clinches the match,” Zapadalova said, “as long as we win, I’m happy about it.”

Overall, Indiana was dominant in singles play, winning five of six matches by a combined score of 84-47 and showing superb resilience after their early doubles loss.

“We didn’t play doubles all that well but we were more comfortable in singles anyway and, once we started playing, I think it showed.”