Women's ITA's

This weekend the Whitewater Women's Tennis team traveled to St. Peter. MN to participate in the ITA Regional Tournament. This is a terrific tournament that features all of the top teams in the Midwest. Last year one of the Lady 'Hawks, Kalla Schaefer, took home both the singles and doubles titles (with Alexandra Bayliss) in the main ITA draw. This year the Lady 'Hawks came in working very hard trying to repeat those results, and their played showed all the hard work they have been putting in.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, there are two separate tournaments that are played at the ITA Regional. The first one is the ITA tournament which this year featured the top 6 singles players from UWW and the top 5 doubles teams. The second tournament is the Midwest Invite which featured the remaining 9 Lady 'Hawks and 2 doubles teams. This year the Midwest Invite singles was broken up into 6 different draws of 16, and the Lady 'Hawks took 4 of those draws. Freshman Ashley Miller, junior Hillary Franzen, junior Kelsey Fitzgerald, and senior Kelly Foster all won their draws. They had to play some stiff competition along the way, and they all showed great play and determination to win those draws. Juniors Abby Day and Jess Vitale both made the semis of their draw. Jess had to withdraw due to a wrist injury, but Abby lost in a tough 3 set match.Caitlin Fitzgerald lost her first match in a third set tiebreaker, but played strong in consolation. Caitlin won her first two consolation matches and in the final of the consolation draw fought back from begin down 2-7 to bring the score back to 7-7 (They were playing 8 game pro sets). Unfortunately her terrific comeback feel a little short and she lost 7-9. Freshmen Kristin Zeilinger and Maddie Benhoff both played terrific in their matches, but came up just a little short. The doubles draw of the Midwest Invite featured two UW-Whitewater teams, Kelsey Fitzgerald/Ashley Miller and Caitlin Fitzgerald/Maddie Benhoff. Kelsey and Ashley won their first match before meeting a tough team in the second round. Caitlin and Maddie on the other hand continued to play great match after match and found themselves in the finals of the doubles draw. Unfortunately their opponents were just too strong and they lost 2-8.

In the ITA doubles draw several Warhawk teams played well. Sydney Divelbiss and Alexandra Bayliss came into the tournament as the number 2 seed, but were upset in the first round in a tiebreaker by a team from UW-La Crosse. After that loss Syd and Alexandra rebounded well to win the ITA doubles consolation draw, winning the final 8-0. Partners Megan Kasten and Jackie Vitale played great in their first 2 matches beating some tough teams, and found themselves up against the number 1 seed in the quarterfinals. It was a back and forth match with great hitting by both teams, but unfortunately the team from Coe took the match 8-9(3). Lauren Aguilar and Kelly Foster also had a great doubles tournament making the quarterfinals and beating several tough teams in the process before falling 1-8 to the 3 seed from Eau Claire. Abby Day and Jess Vitale won their first round against St. Thomas, but couldn't come up with the shots they needed in their next match falling 3-8 to a team from Gustavus. Erika Williams and Hillary Franzen found themselves up against a tough opponent in the first round. They fell behind early but then they turned it on towards then end. Unfortunately they couldn't dig themselves out of the hole they had put themselves into. After that loss they moved into the consolation draw where they had two good victories before they came up against Divelbiss and Bayliss of UWW (one of the only UWW vs. UWW match-ups of the weekend). Erika and Hills played great going up 5-1 only to see Alexandra and Syd regain their form to win 8-5.

In singles of the ITA the first round featured many great matches from the Lady 'Hawks. Jackie Vitale, Megan Kasten, and Erika Williams all were in extremely long first round matches. Jackie lost her first set in a tiebreaker to the 5 seed from UW-Eau Claire, but then settled down to win the final two sets 6-0, 6-3. Megan Kasten came up against the 4 seed from Gustavus and after losing the first set 3-6 won the second 6-2. At this point her match was a battle and the 3rd set was highly contested. Unfortunately Megan couldn't come up with the big points when she needed them and lost the match, but the match must have been 3 hours long. Erika Williams found herself in a long match as well. After she dropped the first set 6-7 (8-10) she came back to win the second 7-6 (7-5) before falling in the third set 4-6. Sydney Divelbiss, Alexandra Bayliss, and Lauren Aguilar all won their first 2 matches quickly and got ready to play Saturday. After the end of the first day the Lady 'Hawks had 4 players in the round of 16 (Sydney Divelbiss, Alexandra Bayliss, Jackie Vitale, and Lauren Aguilar). Erika also advanced in the consolation draw to the round of 16 as well. Megan Kasten had to pull out of consolation because of a ankle injury.

On Saturday the Lady 'Hawks started off great in their round of 16 matches. 3 of the 4 ladies in the round of 16 advanced to the quarterfinals. The only Lady 'Hawk to not advance to the quarterfinals was Lauren Aguilar who fell to one of the toughest players to beat in the draw Tai Lucero from Coe. Tai then took out Sydney Divelbiss in the quarters. Alexandra Bayliss came up against the 3 seed from Carleton, Bridget Doyle. After dropping the first set 6-7 Alexandra came back to win the second set 6-0 before a battle ensued for the third set. The games went back and forth, but Alexandra's opponent from Carleton took the final set in a tiebreaker. Jackie played great in her quarterfinal match and advanced to the semis of the ITA draw to take on Doyle who had just beaten Bayliss. Erika Williams also played in the consolation draw on Saturday and beat two tough players to advance to the consolation semifinals on Sunday. In the consolation semifinals Erika faced Taylor Heltne who lost to Jackie in the first round. Erika dropped a quick first set, but found her form in the second losing in a breaker. This was a great tournament from Erika, she beat some good players and really pushed some great ones to the limit.

After that Jackie was the only Lady 'Hawk left in the tournament and she took on Bridget Doyle in the semifinal of the ITA draw. Jackie went up 3-0 in the first set and she never looked back. Anytime Doyle would make a run she would answer back, and she never trailed in the match. Jackie won that match 6-3, 6-3 to earn her a spot in the finals of the ITA singles draw. Jackie was set to face Laura Krull of Grinnell in the final a number 9 seed in the draw. Jackie played great in the match, but her opponent was too tough. Jackie dropped the first set 3-6 and mounted a comeback at 2-5 to make the score 4-5, but it just wasn't enough and she lost the match 3-6, 4-6. Jackie is only the second Lady Warhawk to make the finals of the ITA tournament and it was a tremendous accomplishment (The bag check must have been good luck).

Overall it was a great tournament for all the Lady 'Hawks. This was one of the best overall tournaments for our team that I've ever been a part of. I believe this was one of the first times we've had 3 players in the quarterfinals of singles and 2 doubles teams in the quarterfinals of doubles. Next up for the Lady 'Hawks are matches against UW-Stevens Point and Edgewood at UW-Whitewater on Wednesday at 3:30pm and 6:30pm respectively.

To see the full draws from either tournament this weekend click here