History continues to be made as the 2013-2014 UW-Whitewater Men's team dominated the ITA Central Regional tournament hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. The Men's team departed Whitewater on Thursday with their expectations set high, and their focus even higher. This was demonstrated immediately as the men battled through three rain delays in the first two hours of the tournament Friday morning. Battling through the element the Warhawks experienced tremendous success in the opening rounds which was highlighted by Senior Captian Brian Kleins upset win over the #5 seed Grant Liesner from host school Gustavus. Because of the rain, matches became really backed up and forced some of the latest match times in tournament history. The doubles combo of Bowman/Yuvaraj started their last match at 11:30 and came out victorious well after midnight. Saturday brought more of the same as the elements continued to pile up. Rain poured throughout the morning forcing play indoors and we also began to see how difficult it is to play two six to seven round tournaments in three days. Players bodies began to cramp and the trainers life became much more difficult as he/she was constantly running out to different courts to help all sorts of players with different aliments. Only the strongest survive to compete on Sunday as Jake Humphreys entered the semi-finals of singles and the doubles duo of Balkin/Shklyar became set to compete in the Doubles final. On Sunday, we were finally blessed with some good weather as the competition took place outdoors. Humphreys competed fiercely winning his semi-final match against the #1 seed Noah Sprinkle (Coe). Jake then competed against Jack Michael (Carrol) in the ITA regional Final. After a long and brutal match UW-Whitewater's Humphreys emerged victorious 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 earning him All-American honors and a spot in the Small college Nationals in Ft. Meyers, FL. Joining them will be the doubles combo of Balkin/Shklyar who defeated the #2 seeded Gustavus team of Smith-Dennis/Al-Houni 6-3, 6-3. This will be Balkin's second trip to the ITA small college Championships and the first for Shklyar.
Looking at the success over the last two weekends you can't help, but look back at were this program has come from. Six years ago #1 singles player, and all time leader in wins for men's tennis, Alex Lowe became the first UW-Whitewater player to make the quarterfinals of this tournament. This result is now common-place as we had three men and three women qualify for the singles quarterfinal this year alone. Over the past ten years this program has grown into one of the more successful programs in the central region. As this is a big accomplishment Coach Barnes and his players have there sights set higher. Reaching new levels on the national scale as a team and competing for individual national titles is on the cusp for these teams and with the effort and focus we have seen from them so far, now is as good a time as any.
Singles Championship Point
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