Univ. of Wisconsin, Whitewater Team Page
The Lady Warhawk women’s tennis team upped their record to 9-0 on Saturday with a 9-0 home win over UW-River Falls in the morning then hit the road and got another win in Mequon over Concordia University.
Against River Falls, the team played tremendous tennis up and down the lineup only losing 8 games in eight of the flights and then had an exciting 7-5, 7-5 win at #5 from Kelly Rutkowski. River falls is filled with a lot of players that really grind you, make you hit a lot of balls, and force you to finish strong to win the point. That’s what the players did taking care of their mid-court balls and attacking the net. As I stated, the excitement of the day was Rutkowski really having to play smart to beat a very tough athletic opponent in a tight match after being moved up to the #5 spot. She finished the match in style, drawing her opponent to the net and passing her with a laser forehand down the line to give the Warhawks the sweep.
Against Concordia, the Hawks knew that their opponents were loaded at the top. The top two players Erin Henrich and Kaitlyn Stiehlow are very talented and had come to into the match with 10-0 singles and doubles records, including impressive wins over Carthage’s #1 singles player and #1 doubles team. Right from the start all the doubles players played incredibly, attacking and playing aggressively. In particular Schaefer/Daciolas played their best tennis to date and beat their opponents 8-3. Siemon/Rutkowski lost only 2 games and Stensvaag/Smith won 8-0. In singles Schaefer and Stensvaag each played very well. Schaefer and Henrich had incredible points, but Schaefer came out on top 6-0, 6-2. Stensvaag was down 3-2 in the first set before rolling off 10 of the next 11 games. The rest of the lineup only lost 4 games at #3-6 singles from Siemon, Daciolas, Kappel, and Kasten.
Our exhibition results were just as impressive winning 10 of the 11 matches played during the two matches. Sydney Divelbiss, Megan Kasten, Kelly Foster, Crystal Zhao, Abby Martin, and Marta Kinsman all got exhibition wins and solid experience.
On the way home we enjoyed an well deserved meal at the Cheesecake Factory. A must stop for a fan of Wisconsin!
This week the action continues as the varsity reserve team will be headed to Kenosha to play Carthage at 4pm on Wednesday. Then on Thursday the Lady Hawks take the long trip to St Peter, MN to participate in the Midwest ITA regional individual singles and doubles tournament. All 14 players will be making the trip. Most of the top teams in the region will be represented, so we are looking forward to some great competition. We are lucky to have Kalla Schaefer as the defending champion of this event. Annie Smith also did very well last year, making it to the semi finals of the singles draw. Play begins at 9am on Friday and goes through Sunday around noon. We’ll keep you posted!
GO WARHAWKS.
