Iowa tennis teams enter Big Ten weekend in different positions
Both Hawkeye tennis teams resume action in highly anticipated Big Ten matches that will decide their fate for the rest of the season.
Iowa coach Ross Wilson watches his team during a men’s tennis match between Iowa and Marquette on Saturday, January 19, 2019. The Hawkeyes swept the Golden Eagles, 7-0.
March 28, 2019
Both the Iowa tennis teams are set to get back into Big Ten play this weekend, with the men’s team hitting the road to face Northwestern and Illinois and the women’s squad seeking to get its first Big Ten win at home against Purdue and Indiana.
For the men’s team, this will be the defining stretch of the season. Iowa heads into this weekend undefeated in Big Ten play (3-0) — the first time the Hawkeyes are 3-0 in the Big Ten since 1998.
“Every team is tough in the Big Ten,” Iowa head coach Ross Wilson said. “Every weekend, you are going to have two tough matches. It’s nice to be 3-0 and beat two of our rivals in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the guys were excited about that, but our guys will be ready to go this weekend.”
The Hawkeyes will need all hands on deck facing both the Wildcats and Illini. Northwestern enters the match 7-2 at home, and Illinois also boasts a 3-0 record in conference play.
The matchups will be decided by who can secure the doubles point. Although the Wildcats only have a 9-7 record, they have been hot as recently. The team heads into the matchup with a lot of confidence after winning six of its last eight matches.
Illinois, like Iowa, is virtually unbeatable when winning doubles, racking up a 7-0 record when doing so.
But Iowa has also been strong in doubles, going 10-0 when it wins at No. 1. Wilson will also lean on his most consistent doubles duo, Oliver Okonkwo and Will Davies. The two have combined for a 12-2 doubles record sliding between No. 1 and 2. Freshman Okonkwo will seek his 21st doubles win between the fall and spring, which ties for seventh-most in a single season.
“It feels awesome [getting 20 doubles wins]; I feel like it’s a nice thing to have, because it’s my first year,” he said. “It’s a pretty satisfying feeling. Obviously, there’s a lot more to come. We got 11 more matches to go, so there are more wins to go, so I’m not going to stop there.”
Things haven’t been so easy for the women’s team. The Hawkeyes return from a seven-game road trip in which they have lost four straight, including three Big Ten matches — two of which against ranked opponents.
Back home, Iowa will look for a fresh start. Since the Hawkeyes started the season 7-0, they have dropped seven of eight.
“I think it was definitely a difficult stretch to drop matches, and being on the short side of 4-3 matches is really difficult,” head coach Sasha Schmid said. “But I do feel the resilience, and they continue to believe in themselves. I think everyone realizes that we are super young. We mostly have sophomores and freshmen on court, and I think they just need to play more and be hungry to turn it around.”
The Hawkeyes will try to bounce back, pick up a pair of key conference victories, and get their season back on track.
Schmid has been searching for a leader to lead the team back. Although the Hawkeyes have had leadership by committee with Elise van Heuvelen Treadwell, Ashleigh Jacobs, and Samantha Mannix, Schmid wants someone to step up and take the team.
Junior van Heuvelen can be that leader. She is 10-7 playing at the No. 1 spot in singles and is one of two upperclassmen on the team. She and freshman Sophie Clark are tied for a team-high 10 singles wins this season.
“I have to set an example every time in practice, whether that be on or off the court,” van Heuvelen said. “I got to be setting good examples both verbally and nonverbally. I just been giving team encouragement and some little small conversations with people.”
