Hawks fly together!
The Warhawk Men’s Tennis team took on a couple of D-1 opponents on Friday in Rockford, IL. It’s always great to start the season with tough competition and this weekend’s matches were just what the doctor ordered. First up was host Northern Illinois University Huskies. We had a spark to our team over the past couple of weeks as Michael Treis (Jr, Brookfield Central) transferred from D-1 Western Michigan University to start the semester as a Warhawk. Practices have been very competitive and lively over the past two weeks, and it was nice to see the hard work pay off, with some great results. For the website story and the box scores for both matches go to:
http://www.uwwsports.com/news/2015/1/23/MTEN_0123153250.aspx
First up was host Northern Illinois University Huskies. Doubles was very close, and we had an early lead at #1D (Laktash/Humphreys) that evaporated, and we lost a tough one at #3D (Butler/Navratil), but we won at #2 doubles (Shklyar/Treis) in a tiebreak. At the D-1 level whichever team wins the majority of doubles matches takes a 1-0 lead, so we found ourselves down 1-0. In singles we started slowly as the guys took a little time to get up to speed at this high level of competition. Humphreys started off down a quick break, but fought back hard only to lose 7-6, 6-4 at#1. Raman lost a tight one at #3 6-4, 7-6. Laktash forced his match to a third set at #4 before losing in a match tiebreak. So although we lost 7-0, we really pushed the Huskies…mush!
The night cap was an instant classic. Doubles and singles were both back and forth all night against D-1 University of Illinois-Chicago. In doubles we split the first two courts to finish. At #2D (Laktash/Humphreys) lost to a couple of great players, then our #3D team (Butler/Beck) dug deep for an exciting tiebreak win to send it to the deciding court at 1D. There Treis/Shklyar were also headed to a tiebreak. It went back and forth to 5-5 before the boys got the minibreak and the win 7-6 (5). This gave the team needed momentum and a 1-0 lead headed into singles. In singles UIC’s middle of the lineup was just too good at the 3,4,and 5 lines, and took a 3-1 lead with victories at those spots. Treis steam rolled his opponent at #2 to make it 2-3. Humphreys after a slow start and a 1-4 hole, really stepped it up for a 6-4, 6-3 win knotting the team score at 3-3. This left it all up to one of our new freshmen Matt Zurowski making his dual match debut at #6. He had lost a tough 7-6 first set and then fell behind 0-5 at the time Humphreys evened the team score. At that time he turned things around and mounted a comeback winning the next 3 games making it 3-5 in the second set and swung the pressure back to his opponent with a lot of energy from the benches for both teams. His opponent came up with a big serve game to take the match and give UIC the 4-3 victory.
Butler at doubles crunch time
During these matches we were able to get some valuable experience to so many players. Nine different Warhawks saw lineup play in singles and seven players got into the doubles lineup. Our coaches agree that we have seen improvement over the past two weeks, and that what we want continue. Improve every week with hard work.
Treis Shklar match point
Next up for the men, is another weekend of play against scholarship teams. On Sunday, Feb 1 the Warhawks take on D-1 UW-Green Bay followed by NAIA Cardinal Stritch. Both matches will be held at Western Racquet Club in Green Bay. We hope to see some of our fan base out there taking in some great tennis!
GO WARHAWKS!!
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