Men’s Warhawk Invite: Doubles and Depth pays off

The Men’s Tennis team hosted the Warhawk Invite this past weekend featuring some solid competition from Ohio Wesleyan University, Wheaton College, and Grinnell College.  We were able to play 13 players throughout the tournament giving many players valuable experience along the way.  Our doubles play and depth were the keys to our wins of 8-1, 8-1, and 9-0 on the weekend.

Our doubles went undefeated on the weekend, improving our spring doubles record against D-3 competition to a combined 26-1.  Our depth continued to prove to be solid as well.  Some of the lineup changes were intentional and anticipated, but some were due to injuries.  Humphreys is still recovering from his injury and was held out of singles and was only able to play in two of the doubles matches.  He was out totally on Saturday’s match against Grinnell.  Navratil also got injured and was held out of singles for the last two matches.   Beck was also held out of a singles match.  Everyone that stepped up, played very well, showing that practices and the hard work everyone has been putting in is paying off.

 

There were so many terrific performance in the three matches it’s hard to talk about them all, but some of the one that stand out in my mind were a couple of the close ones.  Justin Bowman pulled out a 3-7, 7-6 (2), 10-8 win pulling out two gutsy serve and volley points at the end of his match tiebreak to earn the victory against Wheaton.  Also against Wheaton, Matt Zurowski played a very solid match at #3 but lost 7-6(9), 6-4 to Matt Steiner.  Bisbee and Schnarr each got three wins on the weekend and looked very good doing so.  For all the match scores from the three matches go to our website http://www.uwwsports.com/index.aspx?tab=tennis&path=mten for the stories and scores for each match.   Venkatesh Yuvaraj was able to get his first spring dual match experience this weekend as well playing three solid exhibition singles matches and an exhibition doubles match picking up two nice wins.

We are back in action today (Tuesday) for a rare weekday pair of matches at PTF in Janesville against NAIA Cardinal Stritch (1pm) and Edgewood College (5:30).  The task won’t be easy, because in addition to Humphreys still being sidelined, Treis and Shklyar each will be limited or out today due to some new injuries.  The injury bug has officially hit, but we’ll get through it soon.  Good thing we are deep!

This weekend we are hosting or annual  Alumni event for both men and women on Saturday,Feb 28.  It’s a chance for our Alumni to get out on court with the players (tennis at PTF from 1:30-5:30 at PTF). Then we will be doing a dinner at 7pm at 841 Brewhouse (formerly Randys) that many of the Alumni and supporters are planning on attending. 

GO WARHAWKS!!

UWW Men’s Tennis takes down DePauw 6-3 and Carroll 9-0.

UWW Men’s Tennis takes down DePauw 6-3 and Carroll 9-0.

What an exciting weekend it was for the Warhawks highlighted by a 6-3 win at host DePauw University on Sunday night.  The weekend’s action started at home with a 9-0 win over Carroll University.   To see some photos and videos from the weekend, go to  http://uwwtennis.blogspot.com/

Carroll U has one of the top players in the Midwest at the top of their lineup in Jack Michael, and we always have great matches with him.  We anticipated another great match between him and Jake Humphreys, but Humphreys was hurt all week, and was not allowed to play Saturday.  This left an interesting match-up between old high school team mates as Michael Treis and Jack Michael both attended Brookfield Central together for three years.  This time Treis got the better of day and won the match 6-2, 6-1 with aggressive play.  To start the day, the number one duo of Treis/Shklyar had to buckle down to win 8-6.  At #2 Navratil found his way in the second set winning 6-4, 6-2, but in all six other matches combined the Warhawks only dropped 6 games.  This fine performance set the tone for the match the following day.  To see all the individual scores from this match, go to:  http://www.uwwsports.com/news/2015/2/14/MTEN_0214151337.aspx

On Sunday the team woke early to hit the road for a 6 hour road trip to Greencastle, IN to play the DePauw Tigers.  This was to be a tough battle between two nationally ranked programs.  Over the years these two teams have really pushed each other in their annual rivalry.  Last year it went to DePauw, and the previous year it went to UWW.  DePauw is a tough place to play because the fans really come out to make some noise for the home team.  After a six hour drive, I was anxious to see how our team would respond.  The match was a rare Sunday evening match that started at 5pm EST.

They responded well playing their best tennis of the season to date.  At #1 doubles, Treis/Shklyar
knocked off a nationally ranked duo 8-2, and at #2 Laktash/Humphreys won 8-6, before our #3 team of Butler/Beck came up just short of a great comeback. They were down 5-0, and battled back, but lost 8-5 in the end.  This meant the team was up 2-1 heading into singles.  And we had plenty of momentum.  Jake Humphreys was moving well despite his trouble all week with an ankle injury, and he was first off the court with a 6-1, 6-2 win.  Then DePauw narrowed the gap to 3-2 with a win at #4.  Then Laktash charged for 4 games in a row in the second set after trailing 2-4 to give the Hawks their 4^th point.  Treis then dub deep and held off his opponent winning 6-3, 6-3 to seal the deal.  Shklyar looked to be in good form with his 7-5, 6-3 win at #5.  The final match on was an interesting battle.  Navratil came back from 1-5 in the first set to force a tiebreak.  Then he was down 0-4 in the second set and forced another tiebreak.  His opponent was cramping and there were many crazy points in this intense match.  But Zane ended up losing 7-6(6), 7-6(4).  To see all the individual scores from this match, go to: http://www.uwwsports.com/news/2015/2/15/MTEN_0215155949.aspx

Zane’s late night antics and our celebratory dinner meant we did not get home until 3am!  But it was worth the effort, as the team gained some confidence and great match experience from this trip.  The team’s chemistry is really picking up, and it was great to see the players’ support of one another and the focus from the team all weekend.  We’ve been working on that early in the semester, so it was nice to see it come to fruition. 

The team is back at home this upcoming weekend as we host the Warhawk Invite on Fri/Sat Feb 20^th and 21^st at Premier Tennis and Fitness in Janesville, WI.  On Friday the team plays Ohio Wesleyan at 11am.  Then at 2:30 on Friday they face Wheaton College.  On Saturday the team wraps up the tournament with a match against Grinnell College at 3:30pm.

Men’s Tennis takes out UWOsh 9-0 and Lake Forest 8-1

Breakdown

The UW-Whitewater Men’s Tennis team hosted a couple of matches this weekend at Four Lakes Athletic Club in Elkhorn, WI.

In both matches the Warhawks were able to get a lot of reserve players important match experience as we were able to play 12 players in the Oshkosh match and 11 players in the Lake Forest match.  To see our website story and for the box scores for each of the matches, go to: http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/2/7/MTEN_0207153926.aspx 

Navratil Attack 

First up for the Warhawks was Oshkosh.  The Titans had a strong top of the lineup, especially in doubles.  Our #1 duo of Shklyar and Treis were up for the challenge and took out their opponents 8-4.  At #2 and #3 doubles we were able to come 8-1 wins at each position.  In singles, no player relinquished more than three games in any match, and it was great to see Bowman get his first chance of the season in the lineup.

Between matches the team went to Lake Geneva for dinner and stumbled upon an ice sculpture contest.  It was great to see so much UWW support for these matches, and many of the team’s parents joined us for dinner at the lake.

In the nightcap match the Warhawk took on Lake Forest.  Against the Foresters it was more of the same solid play as we took the doubles matches 8-0, 8-2, and 8-2.  It was great to see Matt Zurowski and Seb Lauterbach clicking together for the first time as a freshman combo at #3.  Lauterbach got his first taste of the singles lineup in this match and he had the battle of the day, going 3 sets at #6. He found himself down 5-1 in the match tiebreak, then climbed back to 6-5 and was rolling before losing a tough battle.

Laktash Rally 

This coming weekend we have two more important matches.  On Saturday we play Carroll University at noon at Premier Tennis and Fitness in Janesville.  Then Sunday we drive to Indiana to play DePauw University in Greencastle, IN for a 5pmEST Sunday night match.  UWW and DePauw are only one spot apart from each other in the national rankings, so we expect this to be a great match!

If you are wondering what the ladies team is up to right now, they are working hard working out, conditioning and doing tennis captains’ practices to get ready for their season.  In just two short weeks they get to start practicing with the coaches again, and their first matches will be on Saturday, March 7.

GO WARHAWKS!!

Warhawk Men’s Tennis team falls to D-1 UW-Green Bay

The Warhawk Men’s Tennis team headed to Green Bay to take on a couple of scholarship programs on Sunday.  Plans were to play D-1 UW-Green Bay followed by NAIA Cardinal Stritch. These were both rematches from last year, as the Warhawks lost to GB but beat CSU in 2014.  Unfortunately this weekend, we were only able to play UWGB, because of the snow storm that hit Milwaukee overnight Saturday through Sunday.  CSU got snowed in and could not make it out of town.

Therefore we put all our efforts into the UWGB match-up.  UWGB’s lineup is heavily loaded with foreign players with tons of ITF tournament experience, so we knew we’d have our hands full.

In doubles, we lost all three matches 6-3, 6-3, and 6-2 respectively at the 1,2 and 3 lines.  At both #1 and #2 Shklyar/Treis and Humphreys/Laktash were on serve most of the match until being broken.  From that point it was more holds of serve, but the Warhawks were never able to get the break back at either position.  At #3 Butler/Beck each got broken to start the match, but then held serve throughout the rest of the match, but could not dent their opponent’s serve.  D-1 has different scoring rules. They play service lets live, they use no-ad scoring, they only play doubles pro-sets to 6, and they only award one point for doubles-granted to the team that wins at least two of the three doubles matches.  Therefore we were down 0-1 heading into singles.

In singles we had several close sets, then GB took control of most of the matches in the second sets, and the Phoenix were eventually able to take each match to secure the 7-0 sweep. I was encouraged with each of the Warhawks play as they made their opponents really work for each point.  Treis and Navratil were each serving for their first sets leading 5-4 before their opponents clamped down when needed.  Laktash was only broken once in his first set.  Shklyar came back from an 0-5 deficit playing well to get back in the match 3-5 before losing his first set, Raman was on serve much of his first set, and Humphreys had many highlight points at the top spot against a terrific player.  To see all the individual scores for the UWW vs UWGB match go to: http://www.uwwsports.com/news/2015/2/1/MTEN_0201152353.aspx

What’s next?  The men host UW-Oshkosh(noon) and Lake Forest(6pm) on Saturday, Feb 7^th.  Please note we are not at our usual location for home matchs at PTF.  Instead we will be hosting both of these matches at Four Lakes Athletic Club in Elkhorn, WI (351 E Morrissey Dr).

Please come out and enjoy the tennis!

GO WARHAWKS!!