Men's Tennis' Trip to Iowa

This weekend the men's tennis team headed to Iowa to play in match against The University of Dubuque, Cornell College, and Coe College.

First up for the 'Hawks on Saturday was The University of Dubuque. Dubuque has a strong team and their number 1 singles player defeat Byron Balkin in last years ITA finals, so it was going to be a difficult match. The Warhawks played well out of the gate especially at 2 and 3 doubles where they recorded 8-1 and 8-3 victories respectively. 1 doubles was slightly tougher, but they got the break late in the match to secure the 8-5 win. At the start of singles it was obvious Dubuque was going to give the Warhawks their best effort. At 1 singles Balkin went down a break early only to get it back later in the set. After getting back the break it was a tight serving match until Balkin broke at 6-5 to win the set.On the other courts the Warhawks were playing extremely well and didn't drop more than 2 games in any first set. After the tight first set at 1 singles Balkin opened up the match to win 6-1 in the second set. 2 through 6 singles continued their great play to give the Warhawks the 9-0 win.

Mere minutes after the Dubuque match ended the Warhawks started their second match vs. Cornell College. Cornell was a very similar team to Dubuque and not a team the Warhawks could overlook.Balkin and Osborne sat out for doubles in this match, but our 2 doubles team of Andy McGlashen and Andrew Bayliss really stepped up to win against a tough 1 doubles team. At 2 Erik Scanlan and Kevin Friend played well to secure the victory, and at 3 Cam Laktash and Brain Klein returned well to win 8-2. The Warhawks continued their great play again in singles, but this time so other 'Hawks stepped up to lead the way. Most notably were Brian Klein, RJ Rademacher and Cam Laktash who stepped in at 4, 5, and 6 to play great matches. We also can't forget about Byron Balkin, Andrew Bayliss, and Andy McGlashen who didn't drop a set to tough opponents. With such strong play in singles and doubles the 'Hawks were able to close out a strong 9-0 victory.

After playing Dubuque and Cornell the Warhawks traveled to Coe College in Cedar Rapids to take on the Kohawks. Our matches with Coe in the past have been tight and this one looked early on like it was heading that direction.1 doubles secured a quick victory for the Warhawks at 1 singles, but 2 and 3 singles were a different story. After going up 3-0 to start the match at 2 doubles the Warhawks found themselves trading service holds with their opponents. At 3 singles the Warhawks went down a break at 3-5, and even though they fought and played great the rest of the match they weren't able to get the break back the final score was 5-8. As I mentioned before 2 doubles was in a battle. At 7-6 they had a few match points, but just couldn't pull it out. Eventually the match went into a tiebreaker. Both teams were cheering their teammates on, and it was very tense. At 3-2 in the tiebreaker Andy and Andrew were returning and Andrew rocketed a return down the line for a winner and the helped give the 'Hawks the momentum. After that they were able to close out the tiebreaker 7-4. The 'Hawks went into singles with the 2-1 lead.

At 1 singles Byron Balkin went up an early break in his first set, but was unable to close and lost the first set 6-7(7). At 2 singles Andrew Bayliss won the first set 6-2, and at 3 singles Andy McGlashen played great to win the first set 6-2. On the fourth court Mitch Osborne was in a dog fight in the first set, but pulled through when he needed it to win 6-3. Andy McGlashen was the first match off as he took the second set 6-3, and eventually Balkin ended up falling 7-5 in his second set. At that point the 'Hawks lead 3-2, but Coe was coming back and had won the second set at 2 and 4 singles. At this point 5 and 6 singles were starting and the match was getting tight. In the third set at 4 singles Osborne found himself down 2-4 in the third set, but turned it on to win the final set 6-4. Bayliss was less fortunate at 2 singles as he lost his third set 3-6. This meant that the 'Hawks lead the match 4-3 and it would come down to either Senior Erik Scanlan or Brady Porter to win the match for the 'Hawks. Scanlan ran into a tough opponent at 5 singles who was passing lights out to win 6-3, 6-1. At 6 singles Brady Porter came up against a backboard who didn't miss the whole day (or at least that's what it seemed like). After a tough first set with Brady falling 5-7 he fought as hard as he could in the second, but his opponent was just not going to lose. In the end Brady lost 5-7, 2-6. The final match score was Coe 5 UWW 4. It certainly was a big upset and tough loss, but I think the guys will comeback ready to work, and get ready for a hopefully bid to the team NCAA tournament.

Our gameball winner for the week was Andy McGlashen. Andy went 6-0 in singles and doubles this week. Coach Barnes said that “Andy’s recent play made him the deserving choice for the game ball this week.  For the third consecutive big weekend he went undefeated in singles and doubles against stiff competition.  Against Coe College his confidence level was very high, and translated into solid movement and net play to earned him key wins against one of our yearly rivals”. Keep an eye out later this week for Andy's game ball interview.