Hawkeye Tennis Continues Road Struggles Against Shockers

Iowa dropped its fifth match on to road in a 5-2 defeat at the hands of Wichita State, and the Shockers now lead the all-time series, 5-4.

Cody Smith, [email protected]

March 23, 2018

Iowa’s Anastasia Reimchen hits the ball during the Iowa-Creighton match at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017. The Hawkeyes defeated the Blue Jays, 7-0. (The Daily Iowan/Margaret Kispert)

It was a struggle to adjust to the outside courts for the Hawkeyes on Friday. No. 33 Wichita State wasted no time in its 5-2 win over the Hawkeyes.

The Shockers began by sweeping the doubles portion of the match.

The No. 47 pairing of sophomore Elise van Heuvelen and senior Anastasia Reimchen dropped its first match all season in doubles. Fatima Bizhukova and Marta Bellucco’s 6-2 victory for the Shockers put Reimchen and van Heuvelen to 5-1 overall in doubles.

Things did not get any better when senior Zoe Douglas and junior Adorabol Huckleby fell to Giulia Guidetti and Ting-Ya Hsu, 6-3, putting the Hawkeyes in a huge hole to start the match.

Newly acquired Adrienne Jensen and senior Montana Crawford’s doubles match went unfinished, giving the edge to the Shockers, as they led, 1-0, heading into singles play.

Although the Hawkeyes didn’t play their best at the beginning of the match, head coach Sasha Schmid was still happy with her team’s performance.

“Today was good for us. We played a strong team outside in some windy conditions. It’s tough to be short of four points today,” said Schmid.

Van Heuvelen lost in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, at the No. 1 position to put Iowa in even a bigger hole. Down, 2-0, Iowa’s Douglas still recovering from her recent injury lost in a hard-fought battle, 6-2, 6-2.

Following Douglas’ loss, you could just tell there was no way that Iowa was going to be able to recover, especially playing in different conditions the Hawks aren’t accustomed to.

After dropping the first three possible points of the match, the hope would be that arguably Iowa’ hottest player, Reimchen, would get Iowa on the scoreboard. Then again, nothing was working for the Hawkeyes all afternoon. Reimchen dropped the Hawkeyes fourth straight match,6-2, 6-0.

After defeat after defeat, Huckleby had enough. She got the Hawkeyes on the board with a convincing victory at the No. 4 position. Huckleby defeated Bellucco, 6-3, 6-2, extending her record to 3-1 at the No. 4 position.

Crawford of Iowa kept the momentum going, as she defeated Sarvinoz Saidhujaeva in a third-set tiebreaker.

Schmid was impressed by Huckleby’s and Crawford’s matches, especially the way they fought through adversity.

“I am happy for Dori and Montana’s win in singles. They can really build on the confidence they gained from today,” Schmid said.