The UW-Whitewater men’s tennis team was at home for a pair of challenging matches on Saturday. They beat Coe College 6-3, and lost to D-2 St Cloud State 4-5.
For all individual scores see below:
Saturday morning the Warhawks took on the Kohawks of Coe College in a showdown of regionally ranked rivals. The doubles matches lived up to the billing as each court swung back and forth and ended with UWW taking the all-important 2-1 lead heading into singles. The first match off was #2 doubles. Palecek/Glinert found themselves in a battle of service breaks, before Coe found a way to hold more in the end. Then Moller/Scanlan found themselves in a tiebreak after they had broken first in the match, only to be broken back. The had to fight off a solid team to even the team match with their gutsy effort. It was then up to Lowe/Caiati at #1. They found themselves down an early break and near the end of the set broke back to even the match. At 8-7 Lowe came up with one of his patented cross court returns in the alley to seal the deal.
In singles the Warhawks extended the lead to 4-1 with quick wins from Harmatys and Caiati. Greg Janssen knocked off Moller as he simply did not miss to close the gap to 4-2. At this time, Lowe had won the first set but was down 3-0 in the second before mounting a great comeback taking the match 6-3, 6-3 to give the Warhawks the decisive fifth point. After that point, Mory lost a dogfight at #6 7-6, 7-5 and Glinert finished off the match with a comeback win after dropping the first set.
In the afternoon the Warhawks were without their #2 player Mike Harmatys, but the players were all excited to move up in the lineup and try to take out D-2 St Cloud State. UWW had beaten the Huskies the two previous years, but this year’s team looked to be improved and on a roll this season at 21-2. The Huskies are led by two terrific players Bartoski and Masta and are pretty deep as well. In doubles Caiati/Lowe were up an early break this time but SCSU were the ones to make the comeback as the shot makers were a little too strong for the Hawks. Mory/Moller cruised at #3 leaving the doubles swing to #2. Glinert/Palecek played very well, but lost it in a tiebreak.
Tiebreaks were the difference in this match as the Hawks lost 3 of 4 tiebreaks in their 5-4 defeat. Kyle Halweg stepped in at #6 and played great taking his tie-break 10-5. Lowe played a great first set before losing to Bartoski, Caiati played very aggressively winning in straight sets and Mory cruised at #5. This left the Warhawks in control of their own destiny. All they needed was to win one of the two tiebreaks that were going on at the end of the match. The excitement reached great heights as Glinert and Moller were each battling at the same time in tiebreaks to secure the match. Moller had an 8-6 lead in his tiebreak, and Glinert was down 9-2. Moller lost his battle, as Glinert fought back winning 6 straight points to get it to 8-9, before losing. He certainly played one of the best matches of the year for him. It was a great team match especially considering most players were playing up a spot.
Hopefully this past weekend’s test will prepare the Warhawks as they look to repeat as WIAC final four champions. The tournament will be played here at UW-Whitewater on the Ron Wangerin outdoor courts. The Warhawks have dominated this tournament as of late, and have not lost a dual match in the WIAC in the past four seasons, but it is never easy. This year each of the teams look to be playing very well and will be looking to knock off the host team. The Warhawks will be taking on UW-Oshkosh at 3:30 on Friday. Saturday will match the Warhawks against UW-La Crosse at 9am and then UW-Eau Claire at 1pm. This is assuming good weather. I’ll update you if it looks like things will be moving indoors.
GO WARHAWKS!!
UW-W 6, Coe College 3
Singles
1. Alex Lowe, WW, def. Ryan King, CC, 6-3, 6-3
2. Mike Harmatys, WW, def. Victor Khristenko, CC, 6-1, 6-2
3. Danny Glinert, WW, def. Joey Lankelma, CC, 5-7, 6-3, (10-4)
4. Greg Janssen, CC, def. Tim Moller, WW, 6-3, 6-1
5. Kelvin Caiati, WW, def. Sam Zerbib, CC, 6-4, 6-2
6. Elliott Rausa, CC, def. Alex Mory, WW, 7-6, 7-5
Doubles
1. Lowe/Caiati, WW, def. Zerbib/Rausa, CC, 9-7
2. King/Stegemann, CC def. Glinert/Erich Palecek, WW, 8-5
3. Erik Scanlan/Moller, WW, def. Lankelma/Janssen, CC, 9-8 (2)
UW-W 4, St. Cloud State 5
Singles
1. Wojceich Batorski, SCSU, def. Lowe, WW, 6-4, 6-2
2. Mike Master, SCSU, def. Glinert, WW, 5-6, 6-4, 10-8
3. Kris Johnson, SCSU, def. Moller, WW, 6-0, 2-6, 10-8
4. Caiati, WW def. Ryan Schoenfeld, SCSU, 6-4, 6-2
5. Mory, WW def. Shane Ecklund, SCSU, 6-2, 6-3
6. Kyle Halweg, WW def. Jeremy Thompson, SCSU, 7-6 (6), 5-7, 10-5
Doubles
1. Batorski/Master, SCSU, def. Lowe/Caiati, WW, 8-5
2. Johnson/Schoenfeld, SCSU, def. Glinert/Palecek, WW, 7-8 (3)
3. Alex Mory/Timmy Moller, WW def. Alex Leisut/Kevin Banleke, SCSU, 8-4
