Well Warhawk Tennis Fans, we are back in season. Now we can stop worrying about online competitions and get back to competing on the court. Last Friday the Men's team traveled down to Rockford, IL to take on Division I Northern Illinois University. It's always great when we can play these tough D-I teams early in the year. It allows us an opportunity to go out and compete, and work our way into the season. Last season however I felt there was something missing from our match against NIU. I felt there just wasn't the same fight I was used to seeing from the Warhawk teams, but I don't think anyone would say that about Friday's performance.
NIU was just as good if not stronger than last year, but I know our guys have been working hard for the past year to get better as well. As doubles started off 1 doubles faultered early and couldn't find a way to make it up, and they fell 8-2. The 2 doubles match was almost the exact opposite, their opponents started the match in a lull, and Andy (McGlashen) and Andrew (Bayliss) took control and never gave it back winning 8-3. At 3 doubles it was back and forth all day with both teams holding serve until Balkin and Friend went up a break at 6-5. They held onto that break to eventually win the match 8-6. This gave UWW the 1-0 lead (D-I rules give the winner of 2 of the 3 doubles matches 1 point).
At the beginning of singles the Warhawks felt good with the 1-0 lead, but NIU came out firing on all cylinders. NIU took the first set 1, 2, and 3 singles. With Byron Balkin having the closest first set losing 3-6. At 1 singles, Ben Shklyar, after getting blown out in the first set challenged his opponent at every turn until NIU took the second set 7-6(2). Balkin dropped his second set at 2 singles 3-6, and McGlashen dropped his second set 2-6 (but it was one of the closest 2-6 sets I've seen). Then came 4, 5, and 6 singles.
NIU came out strong in the first sets of 1, 2, and 3 singles, but the Warhawk's strong play towards the end of those matches brought some new life into our singles play. At 4 singles Andrew Bayliss played a tough first set but fell 4-6. At 5 Mitch Osborne struggled early and lost his first set 2-6. At 6 Brian Klein was in a dog fight for the first set, but he couldn't pull it out and lost 5-7. The Warhawks didn't go away though after losing those first sets. Osborne and Klein pulled out their second sets winning 7-5 and 6-4 respectively. Bayliss also had an extremely close second set. At this point in the match NIU led 3-1 and if the Warhawks could pull off these three matches they would win the dual, but despite the great playing the Warhawks couldn't come through. Bayliss fell 6-7(4) in the second set, and Osborne and Klein lost their third sets 2-6 and 1-6 respectively.
Even though we weren't able to come up with those matches at 4, 5, and 6 I'm still very happy with how our team performed. We fought hard the whole way through, and we had an opportunity to win the match in the end. It was great to see the fight our guys had inside them, and it makes me excited for the rest of the year.
Unfortunately, there aren't any pictures from this week but this won't become common place.
If you are in the Madison area next weekend come out and support the 'Hawks as they take on UW-Madison and the University of Illinois-Chicago at 3:00pm and 6:00pm respectively at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
