The Warhawk Men’s tennis team had their hands full with a road trip in two states and three matches in two days, but they prevailed with wins over Coe College, Augustana College and North Central College this past weekend.
The most exciting match of the weekend was on Sunday in Cedar Rapids, IA where they took on rival Coe College. We have had a history of terrific matches with them that typically could go either way. Once again there were many great matches, but the Warhawks were able to survive with at 7-2 win. Much of that success can be attributed to the 3-0 lead they took in doubles. At #1 Glinert/Caiati continued their terrific season with an 8-4 win and our #3 doubles combination of Krieger/Miller won 8-2. Then our #2 team (Hintz/Scanlan) had to fight off a break down 5-6 in their match. They broke, held, and broke to take home an 8-6 win.
With this momentum going into singles, the team won four of the six first sets of singles, and Harmatys took his match early on 6-2, 6-2 giving the Hawks a 4-0 lead and some confidence. As soon as you get confident, however, things can swing. Coe started their charge and all the remaining matches went to three sets. Halweg had the first chance to seal the deal. He was serving at 5-3 in the third, but his opponent fought of three match points, and eventually won the match. Krieger found his stride after losing the first set and won 6-3 in the third set to give the Hawks the 5-1 lead. Glinert moments later won an emotional match over Janssen at #1 singles 6-3 in the third set as well. Caiati lost his three setter and Scanlan won his giving the Hawks the 7-2 win.
On Saturday In Rock Island, the Hawks were without the services of Harmatys, but players stepped up in his absence and got the job done against Augustana and North Central. Against Augustana, Halweg lost a three setter and Porter lost a close one to Madison Native Jack Cullen. Moving up in the lineup Scanlan and Krieger got wins at #3 and #4 singles. The other loss was Danny Glinert who had some bad luck against DeSimone at #1. On the third point of the match, Glinert felt a severe kink in his neck that immobilized him for hours. If you know Danny, there is no quit in him. Early in the second set, he grabbed a sweater out of his bag and wrapped it around his neck for support. It looked ridiculous (see attached photo), but helped a bit, but not enough to get him to normal and he lost 6-1, 6-3. Luckily his dad is an MD, and he treated him between matches and got him close to full strength before the North Central match.
Against North Central the Warhawk dominated the bottom half of the lineup, and were able to do well at top as well winning 8-1. North Central has one of the best players in the Midwest in Sam Sweeney, but the Warhawks fared well in all positions. #1 doubles was the match of the day, and Glinert and Caiati were able to pull out the match that swung back and forth 9-7 over Sweeney/Boguslawski. Glinert played tough against Sweeney, but lost 6-3, 6-2 in singles and Caiati beat Boguslawski 6-3, 6-2 at #2. Covelli did well stepping in at #6 singles winning 6-2, 6-2 and showing some patience.
For all individual scores, go to http://uwwsports.com/index.aspx?tab=tennis&path=mten
For photos from the Rock Island matches go to http://collegetennisonline.com/Univ.ofWisconsin,Whitewater-M-Tennis/GalleryList.aspx
The men are now 15-8, with a lot of season left. This upcoming weekend the men have three more critical matches on the road, and the women have two at home on Saturday. The men will be competing in their final four in La Crosse, WI against UW-Oshkosh at 3:00 on Friday, against UW-La Crosse at 9am on Saturday, and against UW-Eau Claire at 1pm on Saturday. This year’s teams all look very good, so it should be an exciting tournament. In Whitewater on Saturday the women take on Edgewood College at 9:30am and Elmhurst College at 3:30pm.
GO WARHAWKS!!
