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!!
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