The weekend the UW-Whitewater Men's Tennis team traveled to Greencastle, IN to take on two nationally ranked Division III opponents. This was a great weekend for the 'Hawks to see how they look against some good Division III competition.
Up first for the 'Hawks was Case Western Reserve University. The 'Hawks have played Case recently in 2011. It was a barn-burner with Case coming out victorious 5-4. This time the Warhawks hoped to avenge that victory. As the match started doubles was going well. At 1 and 2 doubles both teams were holding serve early. At 3 doubles they found themselves down a break after the first game, but eventually they broke right back to level the match. At 1 doubles Shklyar/Osborne played well the whole time, but eventually they got broken, and that was the only break in the match as Case prevailed 8-5. At 2 doubles Bayliss/Balkin broke Case at 6-5 to go up 7-5 with the opportunity to serve out the match and put the Warhawks on the board. Unfortunately Case played a great game, and forced the match to continue on. At 3 doubles McGlashen/Humphreys were in a tight match until they got broken at 5-5. After a hold from Case to make it 5-7 they eventually broke the 'Hawks again to close out the match. Now all eyes turned to 2 doubles where the 'Hawks and Case were entering a tiebreak for the match. As it started the 'Hawks took the first point, but then Case turned the momentum in their direction and it was just too much to overcome and the 'Hawks found themselves on the losing end 8-9(3).
At this point the guys were definitely down. We didn't want to start this match down 0-3, but I know they had the confidence to know that this match wasn't over just yet. As singles started things didn't look promising except at 1, 2, and 6 singles. All 3 courts found themselves at some point in the first set up a break. Eventually Shklyar took the first set at 1 singles 6-4, Byron fell in his first set 6-7, and Mitch relinquished his break to fall in the first set 4-6. Shklyar's first set victory at 1 seemed to pump a lot of energy into the guys especially McGlashen at 3 singles, Humphreys at 4 singles, and Bayliss at 5 singles. McGlashen lost his first set at 3 singles 2-6 and he continued to fight in the second set until the match was over with his opponent winning 6-2, 6-2 giving Case the 4-0 match lead. Bayliss lost his first set 3-6, but used some energy from Ben's first set victory to make his second set much closer. Humphreys lost his first set 0-6 at 4 singles, but that must have turned a light on in his head because he came back to win the second 6-2. Around this time Mitch Osborne's match was concluding at 6 singles, and unfortunately Mitch was on the losing end. This would give Case the 5-0 lead and the win, but now the remaining 'Hawks were playing for pride. Humphreys gave the 'Hawks their first singles win finishing a comeback after losing the first set 0-6. Humphreys' match finished with a final score of 0-6, 6-2, 10-6. With that win there was a little more energy in the facility, and just a few minutes later Shklyar finished off a big win at 1 singles winning 6-4, 6-2. Bayliss was fighting every point in his match, but eventually his opponent was just too strong and he took the match 6-3, 7-5. The last match was Byron Balkin at 2 singles, after a tight first set that he lost in a tiebreaker Byron found himself down 0-5 in the second. At that point he relaxed and eventually began to chip away at the 0-5 lead. Eventually he brought the second set all the way to a tiebreaker. With the momentum on his side he jumped out early and took the set tiebreak to force the match into a ten point tiebreaker. Byron continued to hold the momentum and eventually he took the match tiebreak 10-5. I'm pretty sure at the moment he was the happiest person on earth.
With Byron's win the final score against Case turned out to be 3-6. Even though it wasn't the result we were hoping for we couldn't sit around and lick our wounds because in a few hours we had to come back and play another nationally ranked team.
The match didn't start till 9:30pm and it didn't end until 1:30am, but with all the energy provided by both teams you would have thought this match was happening at 9:30am. As doubles started the 'Hawks knew they had to play better than they did against Case. In matches like these it's very important if you can capture at least one of the doubles. The whole dynamics of the match change when you are facing a 0-3 deficit.
At 1 doubles Shklyar/Osborne jumped out to an early and what proved to be insurmountable lead winning 8-2. At 2 doubles Balkin/Bayliss fought hard the whole way through. Both teams were holding serve the whole time through until Andrew and Byron broke through at 6-5 to get the break and serve out the match at 7-5. Unfortunately just like earlier against Case they were broken and the match was back on serve. At 3 doubles McGlashen/Humphreys had the most heated match of them all. The match was a back and forth with their opponents from DePauw, but Andy and Jake proved to be the better duo in the end winning 8-5. At this point 2 doubles found themselves down 8-7 tyring to break to stay in the match. It was a tight game, but they eventually got the break and forced the match into a tiebreaker (their 4th doubles tiebreaker this year in 5 matches together). This time Byron and Andrew played well in the beginning to take the momentum, and they never looked back taking the tiebreak to give the 'Hawks the 3-0 lead heading into singles.
Even with the 3-0 lead the 'Hawks knew nothing was a given. They needed to come out and try to win every match otherwise DePauw could come back. Quickly Shklyar and Balkin took their first sets 6-2 at 1 and 2 singles respectively. Mitch Osborne followed suit at 6 singles, but he took a little longer winning his first set 6-4. Bayliss and Humphreys both had difficulties with their opponents in the first set as Andrew fell 2-6 and Jake fell in his first set 1-6. Andy was having the longest match of the night and he closed out his first set 7-6 as everyone was right in the middle of their second sets.
The first Warhawk to get a singles point up on the board was Ben Shklyar he fnished off his match 6-2, 6-4 to give the 'Hawks the 4-0 lead, and within 5 minutes Mitch Osborne sealed the win for the 'Hawks with a 6-4, 6-2 win at 6 singles. At this point Humphreys and Bayliss were making comebacks even though they knew the 'Hawks had won the match they wanted to win their own individual match. After losing the first set 1-6 Jake Humphreys stormed back to take the second set 6-2, and just like his first comeback match of the day he finished off this match tiebreaker 10-6. Bayliss forced his match into a mtach tiebreaker as well after dropping the first set 2-6 he was commanding the court with his backhand in the second set to win 6-3. At the start of the match tiebreak he made some uncharacteristic errors, and his opponent siezed the momentum to take the tiebreaker 10-2. Moments later Byron Balkin found himself in a tiebreaker for the second set at 2 singles. He came out victorious for his second big singles win of the day 6-2, 7-6. At this point the 'Hawks had the 7-1 lead and all eyes turned to Andy McGlashen. Andy had won the first set 7-6, and he was up 5-3 in the second set but eventually his opponent fought his way back into the match to force a set tiebreaker. Andy then steamrolled in the tiebreaker and took it 7-1 to give him the win 7-6, 7-6. This capped off the 8-1 victory for the 'Hawks over DePauw and this is the first victory over DePauw in program history (previously 0-9).
Overall, it was a good weekend. I'm sure none of us wanted the Case match to end that way, but I'm very pleased with the fight and resiliency our guys showed in that win over DePauw. Here are some pictures from this weekend. As always I'd like to thank Liz Byaliss for taking these pictures, but I'd also like to thank here for getting them to me so quickly.
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