The UW-Whitewater women's tennis team had a weekend for the ages! In the closest WIAC tournament in my time as coach the excitement level was certainly high! The Warhawks ended up needing every single match they won as they ecaped the championship winning by just one point! Late on Sunday afternoon the final two matches were put on the court. At #1 doubles Alicia Beck/Bridgid McGuire were taking on UWLaX in that flight's championship match and Ashley Miller/Rachel Siemon were taking on UWEC at #3 double for that flight's third place match. UWW needed to win one of those two matches to win the match and they did get exactly that: one win from Beck and McGuire to seal the deal.
What made this championship special was the manner in which it was accomplished. All six singles players for UWW and five of the six doubles players competing had never stepped on the court of the WIAC conference tournament in the past. This was because two of the team's top players (the only two with WIAC conf tournament experience) had injuires that kept them out of the lineup. Megan Humphreys broke her thumb in practice 9 days prior to the championship keeping her out of both singles and doubles, and Amy Upthagrove had an arm injury that held her out of singles action. So with the youth of this team it was impossible to know how the players were going to be able to handle the pressure and play on the big stage at Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison, WI. Well, as you may have guessed, they stepped up and got the job done. Looking around near the end of the tournament, before we clinched the title, I couldn't help but to feel so proud of all these young ladies that played so well to lead the team under adverse conditions. The situation certainly made it exciting and all 18 players on the roster were a part of the win as we needed a lot of support from everyone in the program. We were able to win 5 of the 9 flights even with many players either playing up a couple of positions or moving into the lineup from the bench.
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