On Saturday, the Warhawk Men's Tennis team took on nationally ranked Luther College (#27 nationally #7 regionally) and University of Chicago (#16 nationally, #4 regionally) in what turned out to be an exciting day of tennis at Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison, WI. The highlights of the day were the excetptional play our our #1 and #2 doubles teams (Caiati/Glinert) and (Scanlan/Hintz), respectively and Will Krieger's solid singles play in two dramatic matches. Glinert had an incredibly tough draw in singles as he played Sundstrom (#24 nat, #6 reg) and Zhang (#12 nat, #4 reg). He lost in straight sets in both matches, but played solid tennis and gained experience that will help him down the road.
Luther was the first up for the Warhawks. We knew this would be a battle, since the last several meeting between these rivals has resulted in a 5-4 decision, one way or another. Once again, the teams did not disappoint. It went to 4-4 with Mike Harmatys battling Utsab Rijal from Luther at number 3 with all the fans looking on at their deciding 3rd set after Harmatys clawed back from being down a set and a break to even it up. Unfortunately Harmatys was crippled with severe cramping in his legs as soon as the third set began and Rijal pulled it out for Luther. Krieger was intrumental in evening the match just prior to this. He was down 5-2 in the third set of his match before mounting his comeback and winning 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(3)! Caiati had won his singles match in straight sets over Whitely, while Halweg lost in a battle at #5. Brady Porter was very impressive in his exhibition singles match. Before singles action, Caiati/Glinert took out Sundstrom/Rijal (#8 nat, #3 reg). Scanlan/Hintz knocked off Busch/Whitely (#8 reg).
Against Chicago our doubles teams continued their roll. At #1 Caiati/Glinert played terrific tennis beating Saltarelli/Brinker in an exciting 9-8 tiebreak win. At #2 Hintz returned and vollied like a maniac, and Scanlan served and volleyed very welll to another 9-8 win. Miller/Covelli looked good, but were overpowered by their opponents. In singles, the maroons proved too much for the Warhawks as they took all matches in straght sets except for Krieger, who split sets before losing in a hard fought match tiebreak. 2-6, 6-3, (10-8) as he played some of the best tennis of his college career. Ben Schwartz and Mark Sansait made their season singles debuts as they played well in exhibition play.
Next up for the Warhawks, another weekend full of good matches as they host the Warhawk Invite on Friday night and Saturday. The Warhawks will face Wheaton College at 5pm at Four Lakes Athletic Club in Elhorn, WI on Friday, then on Saturday in the UWW Kachel Field house on campus they will take on Hope College at 1pm and UW-Oshkosh at 5pm. Come out and enjoy the fun!
GO WARHAWKS!!
