This weekend the Lady 'Hawks made the trip down to Cedar Rapids, IA to take on two regionally ranked teams in Coe College and Grinnell College. Both teams are tough, and the ladies knew these would be tough tests heading into the matches.
The first match on the slate for the ladies was against Coe College. The Lady 'Hawks and Coe have had some battles in the past, but this was the first time since the spring season of 2009 that the teams had faced off against each other. Doubles did not disappoint. 1 doubles was a back and forth affair. Sydney Divelbiss/Alexandra Bayliss broke their opponents the first game and held in the second to go up 2-0, but Coe won the next two games and the match continued to go back and forth. At 2 doubles Megan Kasten/Jackie Vitale reunited and got right back to where they left off winning 8-3. 3 doubles was a back and forth affair as well with Kelly Foster/Lauren Aguilar battling their counterparts from Coe game after game till Foster/Aguilar pulled ahead to win 8-5. With 2 and 3 doubles done the attention turned back to 1 doubles. The match was tied 6-6, and after several deuce and ad points which featured game points for both teams Coe took the game to go up 7-6. Eventually Coe broke and took the match 8-6.
Even though they dropped a tight match at 1 doubles, the ladies still felt confident leading the match 2-1 heading into singles. Since the match was being played on 4 courts 1-4 singles started while 5 and 6 waited to go on. Two Lady 'Hawks took early leads at 2 and 4 singles where Alexandra Bayliss and Megan Kasten respectively each won their first sets. Sydney Divelbiss and Jackie Vitale were not so lucky at 1 and 3 singles respectively and they dropped their first sets. It wasn't long after taking their first sets that Alexandra and Megan won their second sets to push the Lady 'Hawk lead to 4-1. Soon after Jackie evened her match at a set a piece, and sent her match into a decisive third set. Lauren Aguilar and Erika Williams then began to warm-up at 5 and 6 singles respectively. Jackie went up early in the third set and never looked back winning the final set 6-1. Erika played well from the beginning as well at 6 singles to get another straight set win for the Lady 'Hawks. Around that time Sydney evened her match at a set a piece, and with the team score being 6-1 in favor of UWW the match was going to be decided in a third set tiebreaker. Sydney's opponent jumped to an early 4-1 and held that lead throughout the breaker to win 10-4. Lauren's match was the last one to finish and after winning a tiebreaker in the first set she won the second 7-5 to cap off the 7-2 win for the Lady 'Hawks.
No more than 5 seconds after the end of the Coe match the Lady 'Hawks began their second match against Grinnell College. Grinnell is another tough team, and they were going to test the tired legs of the Lady 'Hawks. At 1 and 3 doubles the Lady 'Hawks teams of Bayliss/Divelbiss and Aguilar/Foster picked up quick wins, but 2 doubles was a differnt story. Kasten/Vitale, Ja. went down two breaks early in the match and even though they were able to break back numerous times they weren't able to take care of their service games, and they lost the match 5-8.
Again the ladies were disappointed they couldn't pull off the doubles sweep, but they felt confident they could get the job done heading into singles. Since the weather had warmed-up 1-4 singles were played indoors, while 5 and 6 singles were played outdoors. Alexandra Bayliss, Lauren Aguilar, and Erika Williams all pulled out quick straight set victories for the Lady 'Hawks at 2, 5, and 6 singles respectively dropping a total of 4 games in the 3 matches. This secured the team win for the Lady 'Hawks as they led 5-1. The three remaining matches for the Lady 'Hawks were much tighter though. Megan Kasten took the first set at 4 singles, and she was in a tight second set. Sydney Divelbiss and Jackie Vitale both lost their first sets at 1 and 3 singles respectively, but Jackie was able to come back and win the second while Sydney was not able to mount a comeback. Eventually Megan captured her match in straight sets at 4 singles and all eyes turned to the last match on court, Jackie Vitale at 3 singles, who was in a third set tiebreaker. Jackie took an early lead, but her opponent made a strong comeback and even had a match point at 9-8, but on that match point Jackie came to the net and forced her opponent to hit a great passing shot. Unfortunately for her opponent it landed long, and Jackie took the next two points to win the breaker 11-9. This concluded the second 7-2 win for the Lady 'Hawks.
To see complete scores from both matches click here
In a side note, Kelly Foster, Kelsey Fitzgerald, Caitlin Fitzgerald, and Kristin Zeilinger picked up wins in exhibition play.
The Lady 'Hawks have this coming weekend off, but they return to action Tuesday 4/23 to take on Carthage and Carroll at UWW.
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