This weekend the Warhawk Women's Tennis team traveled the short distance to Madison, WI to take on 7 of the other top 8 ranked teams in the region. Last year the women had a great Midwest Invite winning matches against Denison, Gustavus Adolphus, and Carleton. This year the women were hoping to build up on that result.
Last year the matches were played in a round robin format, but this year the tournament was palyed with an eight team bracket format. The first match for the Lady 'Hawks was on Friday was against the #5 team in the region Case Western Reserve University. This is the Lady 'Hawks first time playing Case Western, and the Lady 'Hawks would have to face this new team without the services of Sydney Divelbiss (#1 singles and #2 doubles). With Sydney out this gave Erika Williams an opportunity at singles, and Kelly Foster and Lauren Aguilar reunited to play 3 doubles. In doubles the Lady 'Hawks and Case split wins at 1 and 3 meaning the doubles lead heading into singles would come down to Kasten/Williams at 2 doubles. Kasten/Williams had gone up 4-0 early, but their opponents had found their stride, and they had come back to force the match into a tiebreaker. In the breaker Megan and Erika found a grove, and they took the breaker 7-3.
After doubles the ladies led Case 2-1, but the girls knew this Case team was hungry and they weren't going to go away. Case took the first set in singles at every position, except for 1. Even though they were down the girl's continued to fight with Erika Williams eventually taking the second set at 6. Eventually the Lady 'Hawks fell at 2, 3, 4, and 5 singles. At this point Case had the match victory wrapped up at 5-2, but the Lady 'Hawks were still fighting in third set breakers at 1 and 6 singles. Unfortunately neither of the ladies took those breakers and the Lady 'Hawks fell 7-2.
After that tough loss the Ladies looked to rebound against Gustavus Adolphus University. In doubles the Lady 'Hawks jumped out to an early lead at 2 and never looked back, and at 3 doubles the Aguilar/Foster found themselves down 3-4 before they rolled off 5 straight games to win the match 8-4. Gustavus got an early break at 1 doubles and never looked back winning 8-3. Again the Ladies led in the match 2-1 heading into singles, but they were ready to get the job done.
Kasten, Aguilar, and Foster all took the first set at 3, 4, and 5 singles respectively. Kasten and Aguilar both took the second set as well to put two singles wins in the books for the Lady 'Hawks. Foster dropped the second set at 5 and sent her match to a decisive third set. Bayliss at 1 singles dropped the first set, and was fighting in every game in the second set. Once Kasten and Aguilar were done Jackie Vitale and Erika Williams jumped on court for 2 and 6 singles. Eventually Foster and Bayliss dropped their matches making the team score 4-3. The Lady 'Hawks would need a win from Jackie or Erika to win the match. At one point Jackie was up 5-2 in her first set before the girl came back to bring the score to 5-4. Jackie then won that game to give her the first set. After that she didn't look back winning the second set 6-0 and giving the Lady 'Hawks the team win. Even though the team match was decided Erika was still playing to win at 6. After dropping the first set Erika came back to win the second, and the match would be forced into a third set tiebreaker. Erika eventually pulled out the big points and won the match to give the ladies the 6-3 team victory.
To see complete scores from the Case and GAC matches click here
The next morning the ladies played in the 5th place match against Carleton. The match started off with singles and the Ladies were able to pick up big wins from Bayliss, Kasten, and Aguilar at 1, 3, and 5. Carleton pulled out the wins at 2, 5, and 6 singles meaning the team that won the majority of doubles matches would come out with the win. 1 doubles couldn't get anything going and fell 8-3, but 2 doubles played well from the start winning 8-2 meaning that the match would come down to the winner of 3 doubles. The match was back and forth with no team pulling out more than a game ahead of the other until Aguilar/Foster made their move at 6-6 to win the match 8-6, and give the Lady 'Hawks the 5-4 team win.
To see complete score from the Carleton match click here
Overall it was a good weekend for the ladies. Even though they fell to Case they picked up two good wins over tough competition. This is definetly something the ladies can hang their hat on and gain confidence from moving forward. Next weekend the ladies travel to Cedar Rapids, IA to take on Coe and Grinnell on Saturday 4/13.
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