The UWW Tennis program was cruising in full force this weekend and the staff was traveling between Madison and Whitewater to cover all the action on Friday and Saturday last week.
The women participated in one of the best D-3 tournaments of the year, the Midwest Invite held in Madison at Nielsen Tennis Stadium. The tournament features the top 8 teams in the Midwest-all ranked among the top 26 teams in the nation and four teams in the top 10. University of Chicago (#3 in nation), Denison (#6), DePauw (#7), Gustavus (#9), Wash U (#14), UW-Whitewater (#18), Luther (#25) and Coe College (#26) were the participants. For the most part the tournament followed the seeding with the exception of Gustavus taking out DePauw 5-4 in the third place match.
For UWW specifically, they started off facing the DePauw Tigers on Friday morning. In doubles our #3 team (Siemon/Rutkowski) kept us in the match early taking out a team they had lost to a week earlier on spring break, making it 1-2 after doubles. Lauren Aguilar evened the match with a victory at #6, and the Warhawks were looking good with close matches at #1, #2, and #4 going on. Things slipped away as DePauw showed why they are a top 10 team, taking the remainder of the matches. At #1 Schaefer was down a set, but up 4-0 in the second set before Arita came storming back. In the afternoon, the Hawks started slowly in doubles going down 1-2 again. #3 doubles was again the winning duo. The Hawks buckled down and won four of the six singles matches giving them the 5-4 win. On Saturday the Hawks faced Wash U for the 5th place match. They were too tough in singles, but UWW had their chances in doubles. At #1, Schaefer/Daciolas played great winning 8-3. Our #3 team almost came through, but lost a late match lead giving Wash U a 2-1 lead heading to singles. Lauren Aguilar proved again to be a rock as she won at #5 after being moved up due to Annie Smith being unavailable at #4. Megan Kasten also stepped up at #6 and played very well. Schaefer lost a first set tie break against Kate Klein before Klein cruised in the second set.
During all that action, the men were busy back in Whitewater. On Friday evening they took out Grinnell. They too faced a 2-1 deficit after Glinert/Caiati lost a rare doubles match in 30 mile per hour winds. Our #2 team kept us in the match with their 8-5 win. Miller/Krieger were in the midst of a comeback, but their opponents put a stop to it at 8-6. Singles really played well. Glinert lost a close one to highly ranked Juan Carlos Perez, but the rest of the Warhawks were able to take out their opponents in straight sets for the 6-3 win. Photo gallery for this match at
http://www.uwwsports.com/photo_gallery.aspx?gallery=131
On Saturday Morning our Varsity reserve players took out Rock Valley’s Varsity squad 9-0. Porter/Halweg, Sansait/Taylor, and Schwartz/Rademacher all won their doubles matches. Porter performed well in the #1 singles slot, as did Covelli at #2. Sansait had to hang in their against a big serve and forehand at #3. Miller, Schwartz, and Taylor all cruised at #4, 5, and 6.
On Saturday afternoon the men faced Lawrence University led by Ryan Dunn. Dunn and his brother Jason pushed Glinert/Caiati, but the Warhawks prevailed at the #1 spot to get back on track. The Hawks also cruised at #2 and #3 to take a 3-0 lead. In singles Dunn’s forehand was on fire, and Glinert dropped the match at #1. The rest of the singles lineup came through big and ended up winning 8-1. For photos from this match, go to
http://www.uwwsports.com/photo_gallery.aspx?gallery=132
Next weekend the men take to the road and the women get to have the weekend off. The men play Augustana College at 9am and North Central College at noon in Rock Island, IL on Saturday. We then head to Cedar Rapids, IA to take on our rivals Coe College on Sunday at noon.
