Hawkeye tennis gets swept for first time this season
Iowa dropped all three of its matches between the men’s and women’s squads this past weekend.
Iowa’s Cloe Ruette reaches for a backhand during a women’s tennis match between Iowa and Penn State at the HTRC on Sunday, February 24, 2019. The Hawkeyes fell to the Nittany Lions, 4-3.
February 24, 2019
This past weekend was one to forget for both Hawkeye tennis teams — the men lost to Cornell (5-2) in Ithaca, New York, and the women fell to Northwestern (7-0) in Illinois and to Penn State (4-3) at the Hawkeye Tennis Complex.
The women’s team started confidently, sitting on a record of 7-0 before heading to Northwestern.
The first matchup wasn’t a contest at all. Iowa lost in a clean sweep to the No. 10 Wildcats.
The Hawkeyes faced two ranked doubles opponents, and the Hawkeye pairings of Elise van Heuvelen Treadwell/Adorabol Huckleby and Michelle Bacalla and Samantha Mannix fell to both. The loss to 20th-ranked Clarissa Hand and Lee Or gave Heuvelen Treadwell and Huckleby just their second doubles loss of the season.
In singles, only Bacalla, Mannix, and Sophie Clark managed to force a third-set tiebreaker before losing to give the Wildcats the team victory. It was the first match Clark has dropped in singles all season; she had been 6-0.
Things didn’t get easier for the women’s team in its second Big Ten dual match of the weekend at home.
Although Iowa came out strong to secure the doubles point and early lead, it wasn’t enough to take down the Nittany Lions. Bacalla and Cloe Ruette got the first doubles win, then Clark and Ashleigh Jacobs claimed the doubles point for the Hawkeyes.
Things looked good for the women’s squad. With Iowa trailing 2-1, Heuvelen Treadwell grabbed the first Hawkeye singles win in straight sets, and then Clark came back to give Iowa the lead, rallying in a three-set thriller.
Ultimately, the lead wasn’t big enough as Mannix, Jacobs, and Ruette fell in their matches, which gave Penn State a chance for a comeback tied at 3-3. It was all in the hands of freshman Bacalla, who lost in a nail-biter to Samantha Smith (1-6, 6-3, 7-5) to push the Nittany Lions past the Hawkeyes.
“This one definitely stings,” head coach Sasha Schmid said in a release. “This team is very young, and we are still learning how to handle difficult, especially pressure, situations. These are moments that I can’t manufacture other than they just present themselves. At the end of the match today, we had three freshmen on the court, and they will continue to grow and learn. We feel terrible that they couldn’t pull it out at the end, but we’re hoping this translates to a resilient and determined week of practice.”
Next, for the Hawkeye women will take on Kansas State at 11:30 a.m. March 2 in Manhattan, Kansas.
The tough luck for the women’s team traveled with the men’s team, which lost on the road at Cornell on Feb. 24.
Iowa got off to a rare slow start when it dropped the doubles point for just the second time this season. Only the duo of Joe Tyler and Nikita Snezhko recorded a doubles victory (6-3).
In singles, Iowa’s two most consistent players — Oliver Okonkwo and Will Davies — were the only ones able to pick up singles victories in their first road test.
Freshman Okonkwo continued his steady play (7-6, 7-5), and Davies picked up his eighth singles win of the season, besting Cornell’s Eero Vasa (2-6, 6-3, 7-6). The other Hawkeyes dropped their singles matches.
Iowa will next travel to Lubbock, Texas, to take on Texas Tech on March 3.
