UW-Whitewater’s Men’s and Women’s tennis teams each ended the season last weekend (May 7-10) after losing in the second round of the NCAA tournament.  Each team made it to the round of 32.  For photos go to: http://collegetennisonline.com/view/team.asp?tmId=2851 for women’s photos, and go to  http://collegetennisonline.com/view/team.asp?tmId=2458 for men’s photos.

 

The women had a terrific regular season and earned a first round bye.  The field seemed wide open as UWW was the #2 seed.  We figured we have some close but winnable matches the entire weekend, because we had already beat the #1, #3, and #4 seeds in close 5-4 battles during the regular season.  The #3 seeded Wheaton College won their first round so the Warhawks played them in the second round on Friday.  The goal was to try to start off strong and try to get at least two doubles wins and then let the singles go to work.  At #2 the Warhawks started off slowly, and were unable to recover, and Stensvaag/Siemon ended up losing 8-2.  Our #1 doubles pair of Schaefer/Daciolas started in a 3-0 hole but dug out and took a break of serve lead 5-4, before Wheaton’s duo took them out 8-6.  Rutkowski/Kappel were also in a dog fight with their match going back and forth the entire way before dropping the number 3 spot 8-6.  This unfortunately put the Lady Hawks in a 3-0 deficit.

 

The players were still confident they could bounce back in singles as that has been a strength all year.  All the Warhawks started off slowly however, each losing the first sets in singles.  Then the Hawks started to surge, Daciolas came back and won the second set 6-3 to even it up and Smith did the same winning 6-1 in the second set at #3.  Siemon and Stensvaag had each evened up their second sets and had some momentum, so we just needed to another going our way and we’d be in the match again.  Their #1 and #6 were too strong however and sealed the deal.  At number 1 it was a battle of All-Americans as UWW’s freshman Schaefer took on the senior from Wheaton Jordan Hook.  Hook showed how tough she could be as an experienced veteran taking the win.  Amundson’s opponent at #6 was hitting on all cylinders too with a great forehand and solid all-court game.  When those two matches ended the other matches in progress were stopped so we were unable to complete any of our attempted comebacks and the official score was 5-0.

 

Later in the day, the men took on UW-Eau Claire.  The Hawks had beaten Eau Claire earlier in the year, but the Blue Golds had played us very tough, so the team was looking forward to really stepping it up and putting some pressure on their opponents early. That’s exactly what they did in doubles with each team taking early leads.  All three doubles teams played very solid aggressive doubles and took each of the matches convincingly.  Now in singles the Warhawks only needed two wins to seal the win.  Their depth ended up coming through as it has many times this season with Timmy Moller and Alex Mory getting the wins at #5 and #6. 

 

This result meant the Warhawks would be pitted against top seeded Gustavus Adolphus in the second round on Saturday.  The Warhawks had lost earlier in the season 9-0, but there were several good matches so we were hoping to sneak up on them and do some damage.  Keeping the team score close and some individual matches close would be the key and then see how they would react to a close match.  In doubles the Gusties were simply too tough at #1 and #2, but our #3 team almost pulled off the win to give us what we needed to stay close.  They were up 6-3, up a break of serve before Gustavus broke back and the match eventually went to a tiebreak.  Gustavus pulled though 9-8 taking a 3-0 lead in singles.  Like the ladies the guys fought hard in singles refusing to go down without a fight.  Glinert and Moller each won first sets and Harmatys took an early 5-1 before dropping the first set 7-6.  Mory and Caiati each lost close first sets 6-4.  John Kauss showed why he is the #1 player in the region taking Lowe apart at #1 while rarely making any mistakes.  Mory eventually dropped his second set giving the Gusties the match 5-0.  Again the matches were interrupted once the team match was decided, so we were unable to see how the close matches came out. 

 

To see all the individual scores of these matches see below.

 

Congrats to both men and women who had terrific seasons.  Also congrats to our seniors for all of their accomplishments as the teams have really flourished in their four years of play taking the program to new heights.  Over their four year careers the men have gone 89-28, won the WIAC final four every year, qualified for the NCAA tournament three consecutive times (the first in program history), and have had four consecutive 20 win seasons.  The women have gone, won the past two WIAC titles, have gone to back to back NCAA tournaments (first in school history), had back to back 20 win seasons (most in school history).  We wish Kara Amundson, Brittany Gering, Jenny Woyahn, Mike Harmatys, Alex Lowe, Alex Mory, and Erich Palecek the absolute best as they move on in the next stage of their lives.

 

Still to come however is a trip to Lawrenceville, GA this coming weekend, where All American freshman Kalla Schaefer will be competing in the NCAA individual singles draw.  The national tournament is a draw of 32.  The first two rounds will be on Friday, May 22^nd  (9am and noon), the quarters and semis will be on Saturday (9am and noon) and the finals of the tournament will be at noon on Sunday.  You should be able to go to our UWW women’s tennis site at http://www.uwwsports.com/index.asp?path=wten to follow the action.

 

Below are the scores from the NCAA team tournament:

 

Women’s second round after receiving a first round bye:

#2 seeded UW-Whitewater vs #3 seeded Wheaton College

 

Men’s first round action:

#4 seeded UW-Whitewater vs #5 seeded UW-EC

 

Men’s second round action:

#4 seeded UW-Whitewater vs #1 seeded Gustavus Adolphus

 

As always thanks for your support and the great times!

 

GO WARHAWKS!!