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Univ. of Wisconsin, Whitewater Team Page

The UW-Whitewater’s Women’s tennis team performance at this weekend’s WIAC conference tournament could not have gone any better. The team won all nine flights (all six singles and all three doubles) and ran away with this year’s title with 63 points. The next highest total was 45 points by La Crosse. The only other time in WIAC tournament history that a team has swept the competition was in 1982 when D-2 Marquette did it. That, however, was when the conference had more teams and was broken into two divisions (D-2 and D-3). So it has never happened for the D-3 teams. To see all the results go to http://www.wiacsports.com/tennis/08tournament.html

The regular season set the Warhawks up nicely, as eight of the nine flights had the #1 seeds and thus first round byes. The only flight that did not receive a first round bye was #3 doubles, where Kara Amundson/Kelly Rutkowski entered with the #3 seed. Amundson/Gering really played well on Saturday winning their opening round 8-3 over Stout before beating La Crosse 8-6 sending them into the semis to be played on Sunday. The #1 and #2 doubles teams received byes before winning 8-3 and 8-2 respectively sending them into the finals on Sunday.

Sunday started with the semis of singles where each Warhawk started due to their first round byes. All the Warhawk singles players won their semifinal round in straight sets except for Annie Smith at #3 who battled Brenna McCormick. Smith cruised in the first set 6-1, but then lost the second set 6-3 and trailed in the third set 4-1 before digging deep to come back to a 7-5 third set victory. In the finals the Lady Hawks again won all singles matches in straight sets except for Smith, who was in a dogfight with La Crosse’s Katie McDonald. Smith trailed in each of the first two sets 5-3 before evening each set. She pulled out the first set 7-6, but lost the second 7-6. She then started hitting on all cylinders and pulled out the third set 6-0. At #1 Kalla Schaefer ran away with the title with a 6-0, 6-0 final match. Ingrid Stensvaag dictated all day and won 6-2, 6-2 in the #2 final. Amy Siemon was in great form taking balls early, winning 6-2, 6-3. At #5 Michelle Daciolas beat Shoenwaelder of La Crosse 6-3, 6-1. Jenny Woyahn turned in a repeat performance from last year winning the #6 title 6-3, 6-2 after trailing early in each set.

Now the team needed the doubles teams to win to pull out the sweep. At #3 Amundson/Gering again played steady from the net to take out Oshkosh’s Naidicz/Leffler in the final 8-5. At #1 Siemon/Schaefer played flawless tennis cruising to an 8-1 win and Stensvaag/Daciolas took out a solid Eau Claire team 8-2 at #2.

The seniors impressed me as the pressure was on them to win again. Our younger players did a terrific job on staying cool with a target on their backs. All in all, everything came together on the same weekend and the team played how they hoped they would. This was a tough feat as each flight had many solid players that pushed the Warhawks to play to their potential.

Other highlights from the day included Jenny Woyahn being selected to the all-sportsmanship and Jenny was also a finalist for the Judy Kruckman Scholar WIAC Athlete of the year.

Winning the conference title now gives the Warhawks the opportunity to host the final four AQ tournament where the top four finishers in conference will meet for a dual format tournament on May 2. The winner of this tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament the following weekend.

The team will have some time off now, but will start full practices again in February. The spring schedule will be highlighted by a trip with the men’s team to play Gustavus, a spring break trip to play some top teams in Orlando. A date at the Midwest Invite for the top 12 teams in the region, and a couple more dual matches before the final four AQ tournament.

You know I’ll keep you posted on what’s going on and what’s going on with the guys team which begins in January.

For now, GO WARHAWKS and congrats lady’s on a wonderful fall season!!