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Univ. of Wisconsin, Whitewater Team Page

The UWW Men’s tennis team entered all 14 players into tournament play this weekend and the results showed that the team is ready to follow up the best season in team history. Last season the team reached the NCAA sweet sixteen and finished with a record of 25-4 (most wins in a season). The team lost three players from its lineup due to graduation. Steve Klaas, Bill Stranberg, and John Friar will be greatly missed. Their solid play and leadership was a big reason for the team’s success. The team reloaded, however, landing six players that were not on last year’s squad. The team participated in two tournaments this weekend. We entered eight players into the ITA Midwest regional (which is typically intended for teams’ top 4 players). We also entered six players into the Midwest Invite (typically intended for #5 players and below). The results from the tournament were certainly encouraging. It looks like we are ready to continue the momentum the team has created over the past few years.

First I’ll give you the results of the ITA tournament.
Singles:
Robin Borg #4 seed. (1-1) received a first round bye, won in the second round, and was upset in the third round.
Gian Heyer #8 seed. (1-1) received a first round bye, won in the second round, and was upset in the third round.
Alex Lowe: #12 seed. (2-1) received a first round bye, won his next two matches then lost a tight match to the #6 seed.
Johnny Reed: (3-1) knocked off two seeded players (#10 and #19) in route to joining Lowe in the round of sixteen.
Danny Glinert: (1-1) beat Brian Tolly 6-0, 6-1 in the first round before battling the #3 seed in a 7-5, 6-1 defeat.
Timmy Moller: (1-1) won in the first round in straight sets, then lost to the #9 seed 6-1, 7-5.
David Stefanik: (1-1) cruised in the first round before losing in the second round.
Erich Palecek: (1-1) battled to a first round three set victory, then lost to the #13 seed in the second round.
Doubles:
Borg/Lowe #4 seed. (2-1) received a first round bye, then beat Bethel and Grinnell teams before falling to Gustavus 8-6 in the quarterfinals.
Heyer/Reed: (1-1) beat Schiro/Delk from Carthage 8-2 before falling to the #9 seeds from St Thomas in the second round.
Moller/Ginert (2-1) took their first two rounds with impressive play before losing to the #3 seeds in the round of 16.
Stefanik/Palecek (1-1) breezed in their first round, then played great tennis leading the #6 seeds the entire way, before dropping 9-7.
Now for results of the Midwest Invite.
Singles:
Alex Mory: (3-1) receivied a first round bye then came up just short of defending his finalist run from last year. Lost in the quarterfinals in a three set battle.
Kyle Wuthrich (3-1) Also reached the quarterfinals losing in three sets after his solid run
Kelvin Caiati (2-1) received a first round bye, then made it to the round of sixteen with two big wins on Friday before losing to Carleton on Sat.
Kyle Halweg (2-1) won his first two matches in straight sets before losing in his third match.
Charlie Miller (2-1) also won two matches on Friday before losing his third match.
Ian Hintz (0-1) received a first round bye, then lost in the second round to a very tough player.
Doubles:
Mory/Caiati (2-1) received a first round bye, won their next two matches and lost in the quarterfinals to Carleton
Wuthrich/Halweg (0-1)
Miller/Hintz (0-1) lost in opening round of play

The highlights of the tournament were many. In the ITA singles, Lowe and Reed making it to the round of sixteen was very encouraging. Reed knocked off two seeds and showed his competitive edge and intelligent play getting there. Lowe played very well in his last two matches showing he can play with the best players around. We had a great chance of getting our top four players to the round of sixteen. Heyer played very well even though he did get upset in a third set match tiebreak by Hansen from Gustavus. He played well enough to win, but things didn’t go his way in the tie break. Borg’s arm was injured but he tried to play through it, but came up short to a tough competitor. Our #5-#8 players all competed very well, and showed our depth this season will be tough to contend with. In doubles all four teams looked very strong, all eventually losing to seeded teams. Returning and net play looked very strong for all four of our ITA doubles teams. Borg/Lowe looked like they can be one of the strongest teams around, even though they lost in the quarters. The level of play of that match was the some of the best I’ve seen since being at Whitewater. Finally the players in the Midwest all played very well, picking up many wins and advancing several players deep into the draw. It shows we have several players that are ready to step up in the lineup when called upon.

The players will be doing captains practice for the remainder of the semester, then regular practices will start again in mid-January. We are having our Alumni match on Sat, Jan 19th then our fist weekend of actual competition will be the following weekend with matches against St Johns and Bethel in Minnesota on Sat Jan 26th followed by our match up against the UW-Badgers in Madison (at Nielsen Stadium) on Sunday Jan 27th at 3:00pm.