Both men and women finish regular season on high note!

The men and women both had impressive weekends finishing their regular seasons on a high note, and now await the opportunity for NCAA post season play.

The women hosted and won the WIAC conference’s Final 4 Automatic Qualifying Tournament on Saturday with wins over UW-Oshkosh and UW-La Crosse earning their 8^th consecutive trip to the NCAA team tournament.  The winner of this past weekend’s tournament receives the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.  Due to inclement weather the tournament was moved indoors to Premier Tennis and Fitness in Janesville. The tournament brings the top four teams from the fall season’s conference championships. It pairs the top seed vs the #4 seed and the #2 vs #3.  Therefore, since we won conference in the fall we hosted and were the top seed and faced UW-Oshkosh, while UWL took on UWEC.  The seeds held up as UWW beat UWO 5-0 and UWL beat UWEC 5-3 (semifinal matches were just played to decision).  Then the Lady Hawks took on UWL in the finals and won 7-2.  Megan Humphreys was able to knock off Bridget Bellisimo 6-3, 6-0 and now waits to hear if she qualifies for the NCAA individual tournament.  Amanda Dick was honored as our lone senior on Senior Day between matches.  Thank you Amanda for all your brought to our team!! For all the scores, a more detailed story, and some photos, go to: http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/4/22/wten_042515_WIACAQ.aspx

Then on Sunday the men had their hands full trying to build a strong case for their 9^th consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament.  They do not have an automatic bid, but can get in with an at-large pool B bid.  They faced Coe College and Elmhurst College and came away with 7-2 and 8-1 wins to add to their NCAA resume.  The highlight of this match was Treis and Shklyar coming back down 5-7 to break twice for the 9-7 win!  They along with Jake Humphreys also wait to hear from the selection committee on their NCAA individual fate. Laktash and Shklyar both earned key victories in the Coe match and were honored for their accomplishments on Senior Day between matches as well.  For all the scores and a more detailed story, go to: http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/4/26/MTEN_0426154959.aspx

The women are in, and the men wait to hear official word on Selection Monday, May 4^th.  At that time both teams find out if we will be hosting the first three rounds, or if they will be on the road.  The first three rounds are played on Monday 8-10 at a site still to be determined.  If either/both teams make it through the first three rounds, they would play the final three rounds starting with the elite 8 at Linder Stadium in Mason OH (Cincinnati), the site of the Southern and Western Open ATP tournament on May 18-20. 

For individuals (Jake, Megan, Ben/Treis), they find out on Wed May 6^th if they get selected to the NCAA tournament.  That is also played at Linder Stadium in Mason OH (Cincinnati), the site of the Southern and Western Open ATP tournament on May 21-23.

Until then we are practicing hard and getting ready for finals!!!  GO WARHAWKS!! 

UWW Men and Women go 5-0 on the weekend.

The men and women were both in action this past weekend and went a combined 5-0. 

The men again dominated their WIAC final 4 tournament (hosted at UWEC) beating UWOsh 9-0, UWLax 8-1, and UWEC 8-1.  This was the 10^th time in the past 11 years that the Warhawk men finished at the top of the conference!  We used a variety of lineups to complete the task this weekend, so to see the details and the individual match scores, please go to: http://www.uwwsports.com/index.aspx?tab=tennis&path=mten

The women were a bit of a MASH unit in a pair of home wins with several of our top players dealing with injuries from the tough competition over the past couple of weekends.  The Lady Hawks were still able to take out Carthage 7-2 and Carroll 8-1.  Megan Humphreys and Amanda Dick were out of action completely.  Bridgid McGuire could not play in the second match after she aggravated her injury and Alex Talyansky was able to muscle through the first match and then doubles of the second match, but could not play singles in the second match.  All the players that were called upon to move up some spots or step into the lineup did a tremendous job and it showed our incredible depth.  Against Carroll University Jillian Wallace moved all the way up to the #1 singles spot and almost took out one of the top players in the region before falling in three sets.  Also it was key to get two 3-0 leads from our doubles teams.  That was impressive, since we need to do some last minute shuffling and try some new combinations.  To see all other highlights and individual scores, go to: http://www.uwwsports.com/news/2015/4/18/WTEN_0418155046.aspx

Once again, no rest for the weary!  This upcoming weekend we are at full tilt again, with both teams playing at home on the Ron Wangerin Stadium Courts.  On Saturday the women compete in their WIAC final four AQ (automatic qualifier) tournament.  The winner of this weekend’s tournament gets the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.  The men play a pair of strong regional foes on Sunday, Coe and Elmhurst.  Coe is always one of the team’s biggest rivals, so we are expecting a great match!

Saturday: Women play UW-Osh at noon and then face either UWLax or UWEC at 3pm.

Sunday: Men play Coe at 10am and then Elmhurst at 2pm.

Senior Day(s): The women will recognize Amanda Dick on Saturday between matches and the men will recognize Cam Laktash and Ben Shklyar between matches on Sunday as our seniors play in their last home matches of the regular season.

In the event of poor weather we will move matches to Premier Tennis in Fitness in Janesville, WI.

Both teams play nationally ranked teams in St Louis

The UW-Whitewater Men’s and Women’s team traveled to St Louis together this past weekend for a quad that pitted all four nationally ranked programs in a round robin.  Some of the matches were held at host Washington University’s courts and some were at Dwight Davis Tennis Center.

The teams were UWW (Men ranked #25, Wom ranked #28), Univ Texas-Tyler (#19, #38), Univ Chicago (#13, #15), Washington University (#5, #11).  To see all individual scores/lineups, go to:

Women’s site: http://uwwsports.com/index.aspx?tab=tennis2&path=wten 

Men’s site: http://uwwsports.com/index.aspx?tab=tennis&path=mten 

On Saturday morning each team took on UT-Tyler.  The men were tied at 1-1 in doubles so the all important lead came down to #2.  We were down a break, and broke back to send the match to a tiebreak.  In the tiebreak, we were down 3-6, but Humphreys/Laktash won 5 straight points to secure the comeback and the team lead heading into singles.  In singles we had many dogfights.  Treis played flawless tennis and won in straights, while Navratil, Raman, and Shklyar all went to three sets.  Raman was the first of the three setters to come off with a win, then Shklyar sealed the team win.  Navratil lost 11-9 in his third set match tiebreak for a 5-4 overall win.  The women took a 3-0 lead with some great doubles play with a brand new doubles lineup.  Megan Humphreys was then pulled from the singles lineup due to her hip injury.  Without her the match tightened up, but we were able to come up with the two solid wins to take a 5-2 lead.  McGuire played great all weekend including her 6-4, 6-4 win here at #1, then Beck clinched with a third set win at #5.  Dick and Siemon each lost after the clinch in 3^rd set battles, so it ended up 5-4 in the Warhawks favor.

On Saturday afternoon each team faced Wash U.  The men stayed in the match with a win at #3 doubles.  Raman/Schnarr have been burning it up at 3!  At 2, Humphreys/Laktash were up a break when Laktash’s back started acting up, but it was WashU’s play that finished them off.  We lost at #1 to last year’s NCAA semifinalists, so this put us down 1-2 heading into singles.  With Laktash out, Schnarr stepped in at 6.  Treis picked up another great win at 2 over Jeremy Busch, while Navratil lost at #3 to Kratky, and Shklyar went down after suffering through cramps all match at #5.  We were down 2-4 at this point, but Humphreys, Raman and Schnarr were all even, and heading into third sets.  If we could figure a way to win them all, we would pull off the monumental upset.  Jake ended up losing to his HS team mate Carswell and Raman’s opponent caught third set fire.  Schnarr played amazing, but lost in a match tiebreak  11-9.  The women again played some amazing doubles against one of the top doubles lineups in the nation.  They lost all three, but I was happy with the performance of all three teams as they all pushed their opponents at each line.  In singles we had some solid performances from Humphreys, McGuire, and Talyansky, but they also fell short.  It was a great experience to play this team for our lineup littered with freshmen and sophomores.

On Sunday the teams woke up and took on the U Chicago Maroons.  The guys won at #2 doubles again, but fell at 1 and 3.  We had a very tight match between the regions top players Humphreys and Chua, but lost 6-4, 6-4.  We also had three set losses from Raman and Laktash.  Schnarr played well again, but lost 7-5, 6-3.  The women also played well, especially in doubles.  We had leads at 1 and 3 throughout the match, but lost in the end of both of those 8-6.  #2D made a late charge, but in the end lost 8-5.  I’m very happy with the doubles we played all tournament, and we had some more strong highlights in singles in this one.  Talyansky was out due to a leg injury, and McGuire played amazing forcing a match tiebreak before losing 11-9.  Siemon stepped in at #6 and lost a match tiebreak as well 10-7.  Beck played a great second set against Lee, but lost 7-5.

This upcoming weekend is also a jam packed weekend.  The men participate in their WIAC Final 4 tournament in Eau Claire.  On Friday they play UW-Oshkosh at 3:30.  Then on Saturday they play UW-La Crosse at 9am and finish with UW-Eau Claire at 1pm.  On Sunday the women travel to Kenosha to face host Carthage College at 9am and then Carroll University at around noon.

GO WARHAWKS!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big weekend for Warhawk Tennis

Both men and women had big matches this weekend, starting with the Midwest Invite for the women's team.  The Midwest Invite hosts 12 of the top teams from around the Midwest, and this year 9 of the top 10 were in attendance.  The Warhawks were the 6th seed and lived up to their seed going 2-2 and finishing in 6th place.  It was hosted in Madison at Nielsen Tennis Stadium and Cherokee Country Club. 

The teams in attendance were Washington University (St Louis), DePauw (IN), Case Western (OH), U Chicago, UWW, Hope College (MI), Denison (OH), Gustavus (MN), Kalamazoo (MI), Augustana (IL), Kenyon (OH), and St Kats (MN), so it was quite a challenging field.

On Friday morning we faced Kzoo at 8am.  We took a 2-1 lead after doubles picking up wins at 2 and 3, but losing a tough match at 1.  In singles we lost at the top two spots (Megan lost 7-6, 7-6), but we swept the #3-#6 positions for the 6-3 win.  Immediately afterward we faced the #3 seed Case Western.  We took the top two doubles spots to lead 2-1 heading into singles.  Jillian Wallace then had the singles match of the day taking out Sara Zargham at the 4S spot who played #1 when we faced them a couple of years ago.  She won 7-5, 6-0.  Megan was in another grueling match at #1, and was up a set and a break when her opponent went on a tear to split sets.  In the match tiebreak each player fought off match points, but in the end Megan lost 12-10.  The 3-6 loss to Case was the team’s first loss of the season, putting an end to their remarkable 16 match win streak.  On Saturday we woke up early for another 8am match.  This was a good test for our bodies after back to back grinders the day before.  We fell behind 1-2 against Gustavus with the only doubles win coming from Humphreys/Wallace.  But in singles we rolled taking 5 of the 6 singles matches.  This time Humphreys pulled out a third set win at 1S hobbling on one leg (Hip flexor).  This 6-3 win meant we would face Denison right away for the 5th place match.  Against Denison, doubles was a real battle.  We ended up losing 9-8 in tiebreaks at both 1D and 2D in some interesting tiebreaks.  Too bad one of them could not fall our way, because I think we would have taken the match had we won one of them.  The match was only played to decision, so we ended up losing 5-1, but we were up in the 3 remaining matches when it was called.  For the scores from the weekend check out the Fri and the Sat stories at http://uwwsports.com/index.aspx?tab=tennis2&path=wten 

This tournament experience was so important in a team full of so many freshmen and sophomores.  This was such a big match environment for them, and they really played well all weekend.  I think it will help them develop for all the important events we have coming up down the home stretch of the season.  

The men faced Kalamazoo on Easter at home, so we had an Easter Brunch at Jessica's Restaurant before the match for some great family time.  Then we had the show down at 1pm on a beautiful afternoon.  The Warhawks took down Kzoo 8-1.  We were without the services of Shklyar.  Unfortunately as soon as he got back recovered from his injury he got strep throat!  Even without Shklyar our doubles was very impressive and we took a 3-0 lead heading to singles. In singles we won in straight sets across the board except Bisbee lost to a very steady player at #6 singles.  For all scores from the men’s match, go to: http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/4/5/MTEN_0405155703.aspx 

This weekend is a very important one for both teams as they will be taking a bus together to St Louis to face host Wash U, U Chicago, and Tyler, TX.  On Saturday both teams play Tyler TX in the am then they both play Wash U at 2pm.  Then Sunday at 9am they both play U Chicago.  What a menu of great matches. I can't wait to see how we perform.  We hope some of you can join us!

GO WARHAWKS!!

Michael Treis Bag Check