The University of Iowa women’s tennis team is ready to wrap up its conference schedule with the Big Ten Tournament this week in Bloomington, Ind. The Hawkeyes enter the tournament as the No.8 seed, and will face No.9 seed Ohio State Buckeyes. The match kicks off today at 9 A.M. (CT) at the IU Varsity Tennis Courts.

The Hawkeyes are coming to the end of a season that brought a few encouraging upsets, and couple unexpected disappointments. The team is coming off one of its most impressive victories of the season, beating Minnesota 6-1 over the weekend.

“We ended last week on a high night playing some of the best tennis we’ve played all year,” head coach Katie Dougherty said. “Now, we have a great opportunity playing Ohio State at a neutral sight.”

The team should expect to come out hot as it tries to avenge a regular season loss against the Buckeyes.  One player who is excited about her opportunity to knockout the Buckeyes is Junior Ruth Seaborne, who has been one of the anchors for the team all season holding down the No.1 singles position.

“I think towards the end of the season we have been showing more fight collectively as a team,” Seaborne said.”

One Hawkeye that came away victorious last time she played Ohio State is sophomore Shelby Talcott. She has the confidence of already beating OSU once this season, and the added confidence of playing well down the stretch.

“I think trying to do what I did last time, which was playing really consistent, start off the match well and hopefully I’ll have a similar result.” Talcott said.

Dougherty said she is excited to see how her squad performs at the tournament and has stressed to her players all week the importance of playing their best tennis at the right time. She reminded her squad that the results against these teams from the season don’t matter, and all that matters is the squads play this weekend.  

“We are going to need to make more balls. Outside there will be more elements, so we have to deal with all that,” Dougherty said. “At this point in the season it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past, it matters what you can do this weekend, this is lose and done or win and move on. Pressure is on everyone.”