After returning to collegiate competition last weekend at the ITA Indoor National Championships the UWW Women's Tennis Team took on two opponents closer to home.
Our first match on Saturday was against an always tough team in Augustana(IL). Augustana is currently ranked #20 in the Central Region and their #1 singles player is currently ranked #5, so there was a lot on the line for the Lady 'Hawks. In doubles the Lady 'Hawks made some switches in the doubles line-up, and our matches against Augustana showed that these three teams are going to be tough outs. At 1 doubles Alexandra Bayliss and Jackie Vitale teamed up for their first collegiate competition together and beat a tough team 8-5. Sydney Divelbiss and Lauren Aguilar played great from the start at 2 doubles winning 8-1, and the 3 doubles team of Megan Kasten and Erika Williams showed their strength winning 8-4. The Lady 'Hawks strong play did not stop after doubles. Lauren Aguilar notched the first singles victory of the match with a 6-0, 6-1 win at 5 singles. Soon Megan Kasten and Alexandra Bayliss added victories at 4 and 2 singles respectively. Kelly Foster picked up a strong 6-2, 6-2 victory as well at 6 singles. Jackie Vitale was even with her opponent early on, but pulled away to earn a 6-4, 6-1 victory at 3 singles. Sydney Divelbiss was the last player on court at 1 singles and her and her opponent were having some epic points. I would have to say (I didn't keep any statistics) that the average number of hits in each point was 15+. After winning a tight first set 6-4 Sydney began to pull away, and she held a 5-1 lead before her opponent started to gain a little momentum. Unfortunately though for her opponent it was too little too late, and Sydney pulled out the 6-4, 6-2 victory.
No more than 5 seconds after Sydney's match was over all the ladies and I jumped in our vans and began the hour journey to play UW-Milwaukee. We knew it would be a tough match against Milwaukee. They beat the Lady 'Hawks last year 6-1 and they have only gotten better since then, but our girls were up for the challenge. At the beginning of doubles it was apparent how strong of a team Milwaukee was. Their girls were crossing on everything, and it was difficult for our girls to get any rhythm. 1 doubles struggled early and their opponents capitalized winning 8-1. At 2 doubles Sydney Divelbiss and Lauren Aguilar struggled early going down 0-3, but they found some rhythm, and after being down 2-7 they brought the match back to 5-7 before falling 5-8. Megan Kasten and Erika Williams were in a similar situation at 3 doubles. They too struggled early on going down 0-3, but their play eventually picked up. Even though they lost 8-3 the later games in the match were tight but they just couldn't find a way to win the big points. After doubles the women were down, but they were determined to still give their best effort in singles.
At 1 singles Sydney Divelbiss ran into a tough opponent. Syd was playing well early in the points, but her opponent had too much offense and eventually she found a ball to hit a winner on. Alexandra played an extremely tough opponent very close and fell 3-6, 4-6 at 2 singles. Jackie played tough through her whole match, but her opponent had too much offense as well and she fell 2-6, 2-6 at 3 singles. Megan Kasten had a tough first set falling 2-6, but she found her groove in the second at one point leading 5-4, but she eventually fell in a tiebreaker 6-7(2). Lauren Aguilar was in the same position at 5 singles, she struggled losing her first set 0-6 but she battled back in the second only to fall 4-6. Kelly Foster played well in her first set falling 3-6, and then her opponent turned up the heat winning 6-0 in the second set.
To see the results from all the women's matches this weekend click here
On a side note the women went 3-1 in exhibition this weekend with Abby Day and Jess Vitale picking up a win at 4 doubles against Augustana. Kelsey Ftizgerald and Jess Vitale also picked up singles wins against Augustana dropping only 1 game in the 2 matches.
The ladies have the next weekend off from intercollegiate competition, but they will be at the Alumni Event March 16th at Four Lakes Athletic Club. The women return to action March 24 in California against MIT.
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