It was a busy week for the Warhawk Tennis program as the men’s team hosted the first three rounds of the NCAA tournament (making it to the regional semi-final), and the women headed to St Peter, MN and made it to the regional final. This was the fourth consecutive trip to the big dance for the men’s team and third consecutive trip for the women.

 

I’d recommend going to our school’s website to see a video and interviews prior to the competition from Harmatys and Caiati at http://www.uwwsports.com/custompages/mten/2009/2010%20mens%20tennis%20ncaa%20regional/index.htm (go to the “other info” section) and interviews with Stensvaag and Daciolas at http://www.uwwsports.com/news/2010/5/11/WTEN_0511102325.aspx?path=wten

 

The men started the weekend out with a bang. In their first match on Friday, they took down UW-Eau Claire 5-2. Playing at home looked like a real boost for the Warhawks as they hopped out to leads in all three doubles matches. Hintz/Scanlan were the first team off at #2 taking out Fawcett/Olson 8-2. Both #1 and #3 saw their leads disappear and #1 (Glinert/Caiati) went back on serve until the end of the match when Caiati was broken for the match. This left it down to our #3 team of Miller/Krieger to try to get the pivotal match for the Warhawks. It was an epic battle with everyone on the court cheering. After losing their two break lead, they were able to stabilize and get the match to a tiebreak at 8-8. They went down in the tiebreak 2-4, but battled back to even it at 6-6. After that each team had several match points until Krieger sealed the deal with a perfect topspin lob over the opponents’ heads taking the tiebreak 12-10. It was an impressive win as this particular duo from UWEC was 19-0 in D-3 play at #3 this season including big wins over Carleton, Gustavus, Luther and Coe. This big win gave the singles players some extra energy heading into their matches. In singles Caiati was on fire, taking down Liprinzi 6-0, 6-2. Then Scanlan made it 4-1 with a win over Olson. Just one more match was needed at this point. Krieger lost his match at #5 making it 4-2, but Danny Glinert came through with the decisive win taking down Chris Kuna 6-4, 6-1.

 

The women that same day were in their second round against Wheaton after receiving a first round bye as the #2 seed. They started with a much appreciated 3-0 lead in doubles. It was not as easy as it sounds as all three matches went to 8-6 decisions.  With the 3-0 lead they only needed two wins to advance. They got those as Smith and Schaefer played extremely well getting straight set wins. Schaefer took out ranked player Worsowicz 6-3, 6-0 while Smith won 6-2, 6-4. It was great to seal the deal early, because Siemon had lost and Stensvaag and Daciolas were in dog fights. Aguilar was the only player cruising at the time. This 5-1 win put UWW in the regional final (sweet sixteen of NCAA) against host and #1 seed Gustavus.

 

On Saturday the men then took on #1 seed Kenyon at home, while the women faced #1 seed Gustavus without the services of Daciolas. Sydney Divelbiss stepped in for Daciolas and played very well in her in singles and doubles. Both matches went pretty similarly. Both men’s and women’s teams dropped all three doubles matches, although they were very competitive at a couple of those doubles positions. After the 3-0 lead each team lost two singles matches early to end the matches 0-5. All remaining matches were competitive, so it would have been interesting to see how it would have ended. Divelbiss had won her first set, and everyone else seemed to be staying tight.

 

On Sunday the men’s final was held between #1 seed Kenyon, OH (9^th in the nation) and #2 seed Trinity, TX (#13 in the nation). The tennis was brilliant and the energy was smoking. It was a terrific match to watch. Trinity took a 2-1 lead after doubles and never looked back getting a 5-2 win when Corey Kowal sealed the deal with his 6-2, 7-6(2) win at #4 singles. Former national champion Michael Greenberg helped Kenyon get their two wins at singles and doubles, but it will be Trinity representing this regional site in the elite eight in Oberlin, OH for the final three rounds.

 

For scores of all the men’s matches from the regional go to http://www.uwwsports.com/custompages/mten/2009/2010%20mens%20tennis%20ncaa%20regional/index_files/Page377.htm

 

For scores of all the women’s matches from the regional go to: http://gustavus.edu/athletics/wt/archives/2010/results.php

 

For pictures of the women go to :

                http://www.collegetennisonline.com/Univ.ofWisconsin,Whitewater-W-Tennis/GalleryList.aspx for ALL photos or

                http://www.uwwsports.com/photo_gallery.aspx?gallery=175 for just the highlights, but easier to scroll through

               

For pictures of the men go to :

                http://www.collegetennisonline.com/Univ.ofWisconsin,Whitewater-M-Tennis/GalleryList.aspx for ALL photos or

                http://www.uwwsports.com/photo_gallery.aspx?gallery=174 for just the highlights but easier to scroll through

 

It was a terrific season and our seniors will be greatly missed next season. We lose eight players: Danny Glinert, Kelvin Caiati, Mike Harmatys, Ian Hintz, Kyle Halweg, Ingrid Stensvaag, Kelly Rutkowski, and Michelle Daciolas, so it won’t quite be the same. I’m so happy all of these players were able to end on such a terrific run.

 

Congrats to our Warhawks!!!