By Nicholas Moreano
With two singles matches left, Iowa women’s tennis players Zoe Douglas and Kristen Thoms rallied their team from a 3-2 deficit and secured two victories to defeat Nebraska, 4-3, at the Hawkeyes Tennis & Recreation Complex.
The victory on April 22 was the Hawkeyes’ 10th win at home, and with a 16-8 (5-6) record, they qualified to compete in the Big Ten Tournament for the first time since 2014.
With the Hawkeyes losing two matches the previous weekend to Michigan and Michigan State, Douglas knew getting a victory against the Cornhuskers would be an important confidence-booster heading into the tournament.
“We had two matches that we lost, Michigan was going to be a tough one, and Michigan State was a little bit of a disappointment for us,” Douglas said. “But we came back, and we had a good week of training, and we knew it was going to be tough today. We are going into Big Tens, and we’re going to know we can beat these teams. It’s a lot of confidence going into next week.”
The Cornhuskers’ No. 2 duo of Hayley Haakenstad and Claire Reifeis were first off the court with a 6-4 victory over Douglas and Thoms. The No. 1 duo of freshman Elise van Heuvelen and sophomore Adorabol Huckleby tied the match with their 6-3 victory over Mary Hanna and Paula Del Cueto Cast.
With each team splitting the doubles point, it came down to the No. 3 duo of senior Aimee Tarun and junior Montana Crawford to secure the point for the Hawkeyes. Tarun was honored on court one for Senior Day, and Crawford played the national anthem with her violin before the start of the match.
But the two couldn’t secure the doubles point. The Cornhuskers’ pair of Vasanti Shinde and M’Balia Bangoura gave their team a 1-0 lead after they defeated Tarun and Crawford (7-5).
In No. 1 singles, van Heuvelen tied the match with her 6-1, 6-2 victory over Shinde. Then the Cornhuskers took a 2-1 lead with Haakenstad’s 6-1, 6-1 victory at the No. 6 spot over Tarun.
Despite Tarun not getting a win on the day, she was happy to see her team rally to defeat the Cornhuskers.
“I’m really happy with the result; it was a really good team win, a lot of people battled really hard,” Tarun said. “It’s a huge win for us. Nebraska is a really good team, and today was definitely one of the best team wins on the season.”
Back and forth the Hawkeyes and Cornhuskers went in singles. At the No. 4 spot, Huckleby tied the match at 2 with her 6-4, 6-4 victory over Hanna. Then the Cornhuskers took the lead right back at the No. 3 spot with Del Cueto Cast’s 6-4, 6-3 victory over Crawford.
But the Hawkeye’s two wins from Douglas and Thoms sealed the victory for the Hawkeyes. Assistant coach Drew Lied was proud of the way the two finished the last matches.
“It’s big, we were down 3-2 [with] two matches left, and the girls pulled it off,” Lied said. “This shows that we can play with every team. Every team is going to be close. It’s the Big Ten, everything is competitive, but it gives us some confidence moving forward.”
The Hawkeyes will return to the court this week for the Big Ten Tournament, Thursday through April 30 in Champaign, Illinois. The Hawkeyes will enter the tournament as the No. 7 seed and face No. 9 seed Indiana on Thursday.
