Lady Hawks Land 3 in The Semi-Finals at Fall ITA

A tremedous weekend at Gustavus Adolphus College was capped off by a 6-3, 6-1 finals victory by now All-American Megan Humphreys.  "Seeing a freshman come into the ITA regional with the amount of confidence and poise she had is very rare," said coach Barnes.  Megan battled through all types of players and elements on her way to a very impressive tournament title.
The story of the Warhawks journey through the ITA is an interesting one to say the least.  On the surface having three of the four semi-finalists is an incredible accomplishment and something to be very proud of as a program.  However, digging deeper into the story we see that this means an all Whitewater semi-final.  This was a first experience for me as a coach, and for many of the family and fans we had viewing the match,  as senior captain Jackie Vitale took on senior captain Alexandra Bayliss. It was a tremedous fight that pushed both players to their limits in a match that eventually ended up in Alexandra's favor.  This meant that the next round was more of the same with teamates Alexandra Bayliss and Megan Humphreys competing against each other for the ITA championship.
Having teamates playing against each other is a very difficult experience for coaches, families, and other teamates watching the match.  Although we are all proud of the accomplishments the program made there is undoubtly, a unique tension throughout the stadium.  Obviously families have a rooting interest, but coaches and teamates just want to see both players doing well and its difficult to see either on the losing end.  These matches proved very difficult for the coaches to watch as every point we experience both joy and defeat.
At the end of the tournament tears of joy and tears of defeat were shed but with the toughness and desire i have grown accustom to seeing from this team.  I believe not only the three semi-finalists but all players and coaches have become stronger and more united then ever before.  Our Lady Hawks made history this past weekend, but what we gained and how we handled the adversity of the semi-final and the final as a program (families included) was nothing short of remarkable.  That attitude and that level of maturity is something that only comes from teams with strong senior leadership and an intense desire for team success.  It is because of this Coach Barnes and I are proud to call ourselves the coaches for this team and that is also why we have set or standards to new levels never reached before.

Bayliss Awarded Game Ball for Conference Opener

This past weekend the Lady Hawks opened their conference play on Friday at UW-Eau Claire and continued Saturday at UW-La Crosse.  The weekend featired some fine tennis from the women's team as they cruised to two 8-1 victories.  The highlight of the weekend was Alexandra Bayliss' play at #1 singles.  "Alexandra's performance was typical of how the team has played this year.  With losing four starters from last years team, for everyone to be able to step up and pick up where we left off against our two toughest conference rivals is impressive.  I was particulalrly impressed by Bayliss' singles effort."  said Coach Barnes.  Impressed may be an understatement as Bayliss took down Katie Gillman, 6-0, 6-0.  Gillman took Bayliss to three sets last year before Alexandra pulled out the win.  Bayliss then followed this performance with an impressive 6-1, 6-0 victory over Olivia Hartwick from UW-Eau Claire.  

After the long weekend Bayliss sat down with Coach Scanlan to do her fans a favor, and go through her tennis bag, in this seasons first bag check.

Alexandra Bayliss' Bag Check

UW-Whitewater Men's and Women's Tennis In Full Force This Weekend

This past weekend the Men's tennis team began their fall season competition at the Art Peterson Invite hosted by Western Illinois.  This tournament hosts teams from D1, D2, D3, and NAIA and is some great early competition.  Friday hosted the singles action as we saw our Warhawks take 4 of the 7 singles flights.  Jake Humphreys, Scott Butler, Kevin Friend (the "doubles specialist"), and Justin Bowman, won at the #1, #5, #6, #7 singles flights respectivly.  Saturday we saw some hot doubles action and even hotter weather as the Warhawks battled through some early season soreness and injuries to take 2 of the 3 doubles flights.  Scott Butler and Marty Beck at #2 doubles, and Brian Klien, and Daniel Etman at #3 doubles.  Overall the Warhawks had a very successful tournament taking 1st in 6 of the 11 flights and 3rd in the always tough #1 doubles draw thanks to Rithwik Rajshekhar Raman, and Kevin Friend.

On Saturday the Lady Hawks hosted Wheaton College at the UWW Stadium courts.  The Lady Hawks put together arguably there best performance ever against Wheaton winning 9-0.  The match featured the official line-up debut of three very hard working seniors;  Jess Vitale, Hillary Franzen, and Abby Day.  These ladies are a great representation not only of our program, but hard work as well.

Overall UW-W tennis had a very successful weekend and now that the season is in full force it is time to really step up the hard work!!!

Next Weekend the Lady Hawks travel to Lacrosse and Eau Claire for some important conference matches.
Women's Schedule

Go Hawks!

2013-2014 Tennis Season Begins

On Thursday the men's and women's team met at Coach Barnes' house for an annual season kick-off barbeque and a chance to get to know each other.  The Barnes' entertainment complex features ping-pong, pool, bags, sand volleyball, and much more.  All hosted and prepared by grill-master Barnes.

  

Saturday and Sunday had a less friendly feel to it, as the Womens team began competition against Edgewood College.  A match that was supposed to begin at at 3:30.  But because of rain and thunderstorms was pushed back roughly three hours beginning at 6:30.  Forcing Whitewater to open their season, under the lights.  Playing under the lights is a new experience for several of our players and it was good to see all the young players pull out victories.  In fact all UWW players, lineup and exhibition won bringing the total match count to 16-0 in Whitewaters favor.

Sunday, the lady hawks faced much tougher competition, in the Warhawk invite.  The Warhawk Invite is 6 seperate draws, a #1, #2 and a #3 singles and doubles draw.  At the end of each draw points are awarded to each team based on the performance of the individual for said team.  The Lady Hawks dominated the invite winning 5 of the 6 flights and taking 2nd in the other.  A special shout out to Megan Humprehys who won the #1 singles draw and is only a freshman!!  

Next week the men travel to Western Illinois University to participate in the Art Peterson Invite, while the Lady Hawks host a big regional match at home vs Wheaton College at 1:30 Pm Sat. Sep. 7.