Iowa women’s tennis player Anya Lamoreaux has not played for the Hawkeyes since their Feb. 24 home matchup against Iowa State. Head coach Sasha Schmid said the fifth-year senior has battled illness for the past month.

Lamoreaux has now missed Iowa’s last five matches, all against conference opponents. The Black and Gold have gone 3-2 during that stretch.

The addition of Lamoreaux to the Iowa lineup this year was a boost for the Hawkeyes. Not only does the Utah transfer have plenty of matches under her belt, but she also had winning records in both singles and doubles play over her four years with the Utes.

A four-star recruit out of Mountain View High School in Arizona, Lamoreaux is best known for her doubles play. She won two state titles in doubles while with the Toros.

In six of the Hawkeyes’ first seven matches, Lamoreaux was half of Iowa’s No. 1 doubles combo alongside sophomore Marisa Schmidt. The pair went 2-3, with one unfinished match.

Without their usual top doubles player for the past five duals, Iowa  had to rearrange its doubles pairings. Schmidt has been paired with senior Samantha Mannix since Lamoreaux has been out, and the new duo has compiled a 2-2 record with one unfinished match split between the No. 1 and 2 slots.

The pair put up a 6-3 victory over Michigan State’s Liisa Vehvilainen and Ayshe Can on March 17 in the Hawkeyes’ 4-1 defeat of the Spartans. In the Hawkeyes’ most recent match against Nebraska on March 25, the combination dropped a 6-4 decision.

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“I think we played all fall together, and I think we have a good dynamic,” Mannix told The Daily Iowan about her partnering with Schmidt. “As always, we have room for improvement, but I think we’ve really improved on, you know, making a lot our first serves, making returns. And I think that makes our opponents really uncomfortable if we’re not giving them as many unforced errors or as many mistakes early in points, and then just being as aggressive as we can at the net.”

Mannix’s former partner, freshman Pia Kranholdt, is now joined by Iowa sophomore Barbora Pokorna in the No. 3 position. While the young duo started 0-3 during Lamoreaux’s absence, Schmid saw signs of progress.

“[Kranholdt and Pokorna] are just continuing to learn and grow, and, you know, they put themselves in a position to be able to win that match against Michigan State (a 7-5 loss), and sometimes those are the things that happen early in Big Ten play,” Schmid said. “They’ve improved from [the match against Michigan to the match against Michigan State], getting more comfortable with their returning sides. Just really coming down to the basics right, like making a lot of first serves, a lot of good returns, and having a good core positioning is really the focus with them.”

Against the Cornhuskers, the pair collected their first win of the season, a 6-4 victory.

“They got the only doubles win, which was huge for them,” Mannix said following the Nebraska match. “I think, you know, they’re building up some confidence and some comfort up at the net.”

In singles play, Lamoreaux would usually occupy the No. 5 or 6 slots and oftentimes rotate in for Kranholdt or Pokorna. In Iowa’s most recent matches, victories over Michigan State and Nebraska, each Hawkeye notched a straight-set win. For Kranholdt, those wins were her first two of the season.

Lamoreaux attended the match against Nebraska and practiced with the team on Tuesday. Schmid said Lamoreaux is progressing and hopes that the Utah transfer will be able to play soon.

Up next for the Hawkeyes is a home matchup against conference foe Purdue on March 31 at 1:00 p.m. The Boilermakers are 11-4 overall and 2-2 in conference play while Iowa is 7-6 overall with a 2-1 record in the Big Ten.