The Iowa women’s tennis team completed a two-match road trip to the pacific northwest this weekend and finished 1-1. While the Hawkeyes lost to Oregon, 4-1, on Feb. 10, they defeated St. Mary’s, 5-2, the next day.

Staying competitive with the Ducks

Iowa faced an early deficit in Eugene, dropping the doubles point. The top Hawkeye duo of sophomore Marisa Schmidt and fifth-year senior Anya Lamoreaux lost their match, 6-2, while the second pairing of Iowa freshman Pia Kranholdt and fifth-year senior Samantha Mannix suffered a 6-4 defeat.

Head coach Sasha Schmid said Kranholdt and Mannix, as well as the third combination of Hawkeye freshman Daianne Hayashida and sophomore Vipasha Mehra, led, 4-2, in their respective matches. Hayashida and Mehra were ahead, 5-4, in their unfinished set.

“Whenever we lose that doubles point, I feel like we got to play well in singles and unfortunately we dropped two [singles] matches kind of quick,” Schmid told The Daily Iowan. “The momentum of the match quickly swung in Oregon’s favor, so then it feels like you’ve got to pull to come out. In reality, we were in for really competitive matches.”

The lone win in singles play against the Ducks was from Hayashida. The Lima, Peru, native defeated Oregon sophomore Karin Young in three sets. Young was the No. 57 recruit in the U.S. for the Class of 2022 and was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention her freshman season.

“I think she just really needed to make an adjustment when she was getting some high balls and being pushed back in court positioning,” Schmid said of Hayashida. “She took those balls a little bit earlier, didn’t give up as much ground, and then could find more ways to be offensive instead of being pushed back and defensive.”

Comeback against St. Mary’s

On Feb. 11, the Hawkeyes returned to the Student Tennis Center in Eugene to face off against the St. Mary’s Gaels.

Even though Hayashida and Mehra won their match, 7-5, and Mannix and Kranholdt forced a tiebreaker, the Hawkeyes still dropped the doubles point. Iowa needed to win four of six singles matches to win the match.

“In between doubles and singles, we pretty much talked about who we are as a team, what our characteristics are as a team, and how we’re going to bounce back from these things,” Lamoreaux said. “We talked about wanting to be a really gritty team and wanting to fight for every point in every match … I think a lot of it was managing the bigger points. I think [against] Oregon we played a little too safe and too careful.”

Five of six Hawkeyes won their singles matches, the only loss coming on court No. 6 where Kranholdt lost in straight sets to St. Mary’s sophomore Stefanie Silva.

“We lost the doubles point again, so we were in the same position [as we were against Oregon],” Schmid said. “But then I just felt like we didn’t give away any points, and we actually got off the court quickly onto straight set wins against St. Mary’s with [Iowa sophomore Barbora Pokorna] and [Mehra], so the momentum of the match wasn’t the same. It went more in our favor earlier in singles.”

Lamoreaux Injury Report

During singles play against Oregon, Lamoreaux injured her right foot and did not play the next day against St. Mary’s. The Utah transfer was in a walking boot and didn’t practice on Wednesday.

Lamoreaux said the boot was a precautionary measure to let the inflammation die down and regain her range of motion. The fifth-year senior said her goal is to play in the Hawkeyes’ next match on Feb. 21.

New Doubles Combinations

Without Lamoreaux, the Hawkeyes mixed up their doubles pairings against St. Mary’s. Kranholdt and Mannix moved up one spot to the No. 1 duo, followed by Hayashida and Mehra. The new No. 3 combination was Schmidt and Pokorna.

Pokorna had last played doubles on Jan. 20 in Iowa’s match against Charlotte, when she was paired with Hayashida as the Hawkeye No. 3 combo. That pairing lost their match, 6-1. Against St. Mary’s, Schmidt and Pokorna fell, 6-0.

Up Next  

Next week, the Hawkeyes again go on the road for a weekday matchup against DePaul in Chicago on Feb. 21. The Blue Demons are 1-5 on the season and have lost five straight matches heading into Friday.