Men and women’s teams in NCAA tournament again

The UW-Whitewater men and women each competed in the NCAA tournament this weekend.  The men hosted a six team regional at Whitewater.  It was their 9 consecutive trip to the big dance.  The women traveled to Greencastle, IN where #1 seed DePauw hosted.   It was the women’s eighth straight NCAA tournament trip. 

The men started with a 5-0 win over Edgewood College on Friday.  For all the scores for this match, go to http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/5/8/_0508150358.aspx To see a great video from this match, go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSl69pH56So  This win put us in the round of 32 vs familiar foe, Gustavus Adolphus.  Doubles was  intense all around, and Humphreys/Shklyar were able to knock off the #1 doubles team in the region 8-6, while Laktash/Beck lost a tight battle at #2 8-6.  On the third line, Schnarr/Raman lost to an on-fire team 2-8.  In singles the fight was on with the Hawks down 1-2.  First off was Shklyar at #4, but the rest of the matches were dogfights, including 4 three setters and a tight 7-5, 6-4 loss from Schnarr at #6.  Navratil lost his three-setter to give Gustavus 5 points and the match was stopped with Jake, Raman, and Cam all battling in their third sets.  To see all the scores from this battle, go to: http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/5/9/MTEN_0509151552.aspx

The women reached the third round (sweet sixteen) for the 4^th time in school history with wins over Grove City College (PA) http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/5/7/WTEN_0507150228.aspx and a thriller against Hope College http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/5/8/WTEN_0508153030.aspx   Let me tell you about the drama in this one.  Hope has great doubles, and Wallace/Beck were able to keep us in the match with their quick win at #2.  We lost at 1 and 3, so we were down 1-2 heading into singles.  Wallace was next off the court with a loss at #4, so we were now down 1-3 and in need of a win.  McGuire was the one that shifted the momentum for us with an impressive 6-1, 7-6 win at #2.  Humphreys then joined the action with a straight sets win over NCAA qualifier Nancy Benda.  So we were tied 3-3 with three 3-set matches going.  We needed two of them, and Beck obliged winning her third set 6-3.  She was up 5-1 then things got tight before she came up with a huge service game to win.  So now Alex Talyansky was at 4-4 in her third set and Dick was down 1-2 in hers.  Talyansky was in a marathon game, while Amanda Dick took a 4-2 lead.  Then Alex’s opponent took an injury time out after Taly took the 5-4 lead at the same time Amanda was up 5-3.  Amanda ended up sealing the deal with a great ground game when Alex was serving at 30all.  The team mobbed Amanda, who used her senior experience to give the team the huge win.  This now put us in the regional final against host and #1 seed, DePauw.  We came out the final day just a little flat, and DePauw was fired up with a huge crowd.  The Tigers played some great doubles and took a 3-0 lead.  There would be no big comebacks on this day, but we had many nice sets and some tight matches were still on when DePauw won 5-0.  To see all those scores, go to: http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/5/9/WTEN_0509151510.aspx

The end of this weekend means the end of team competition for the year.  But siblings Jake and Megan Humphreys continue on to the NCAA singles tournament next week in Mason, OH near Cincinnati where the ATP tournament the Western and Southern Open is played.  We are looking forward to playing on that facility.

Last week we had our annual team banquet at Cravath Lake Park in Whitewater.  It was a great celebration of two great seasons and I could not have been more proud!  See below for banquet photos.