Season ends with a great Humphreys run!

The Warhawk Tennis season came to an end last week at the D-3 NCAA individual championships.  Megan Humphreys and Jake Humphreys (both now 2 tiime singles All-Americans and Jake a doubles All-American) each qualified for the NCAA singles tournament, a draw of the top 32 players in the nation. First of all, I could not have been more proud to call myself the coach of these two wonderful players.  They represented our program and University with class all season-on and off the court. Before going into the details, check out the following links: This is a must see, as Fox6 Sports came to campus prior to us leaving for the tournament to do a story on the Humphreys siblings.  Check out their interview at; http://fox6now.com/2015/05/20/it-would-be-a-dream-come-true-uw-whitewater-brothersister-tennis-combo-hoping-for-national-championships/ Go to our Warhawk Tennis Facebook page to check out some photos from the trip at https://www.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/media/set/?set=a.864986046889987.1073741896.119813758073890&type=1  There are some cool videos of a couple of Jake's play including match point of his opening match taking out the #6 seed.  You should like our page, so you get all our future updates as well. Here are a few more Humphreys Family photos.  https://www.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/media/set/?set=a.864986046889987.1073741896.119813758073890&type=1 Now onto the details.  The tournament was held at the site of the ATP tournament in near Cincinatti callled the Southern and Western Open, so the facilities were awesome!  We drove down on Tuesday and got there in time to watch the men's semis of the team tournament.  Then we had an evening practice.  Zane and his Dad, and Bridgid were there for suppport and to experience the tournament as well.  On Wednesday it was a two-a-day practice session for the Humphreys and we had some fun with some of the tournament gala.  Then on Thursday it was down to action. Compeition started with Megan.  Megan is the third person in school history to qualify for this tournament in singles (Schaefer and Bayliss also did recently).  She unfortunetly ran into a terrifiic player from Bowdoin who made an impressive run eventually losing in the championship match 7-5 in the third.  Megan score was a 6-2, 6-1.  For the Day 1 story, go to: http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/5/21/MTEN_0521155132.aspx So now our hoped turned to Jake and he did not disappoint.  On day 1 for him, he took out the big hitting #6 seed Adam Krull from Trinity (TX) 7-6(4), 6-4, then knocked out Skidmore 6-3, 6-3.  This gave Jake a spot in the coveted quaterfinals, no other Warhawk in history had ever been there in singles.  He was toe to toe with the #4 seeded player Michael Buxbaum, from Johns Hopkins, but fell 7-5, 6-4 to put an end to the dream run. We are already looking forward to next season.  Both the Humphreys will be returning along with so many key pieces from this years teams the made deep runs. Also both teams have huge recruits that look to be difference makers coming in as freshen and transfers. Don't forget to follow us on twitter at @uwwtennis. In addition to getting our in-progress match updates, we can update you this summer on camp activities and community service endeavors. Thank you to all of you that make up Warhawk Tennis Nation!  Can't wait to see where this train is headed! GO WARHAWKS!!

Jake and Megan Humphreys NCAA video

Check out this video created to send off Megan and Jake to the NCAA singles championship tournament!

Men and women’s teams in NCAA tournament again

The UW-Whitewater men and women each competed in the NCAA tournament this weekend.  The men hosted a six team regional at Whitewater.  It was their 9 consecutive trip to the big dance.  The women traveled to Greencastle, IN where #1 seed DePauw hosted.   It was the women’s eighth straight NCAA tournament trip. 

The men started with a 5-0 win over Edgewood College on Friday.  For all the scores for this match, go to http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/5/8/_0508150358.aspx To see a great video from this match, go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSl69pH56So  This win put us in the round of 32 vs familiar foe, Gustavus Adolphus.  Doubles was  intense all around, and Humphreys/Shklyar were able to knock off the #1 doubles team in the region 8-6, while Laktash/Beck lost a tight battle at #2 8-6.  On the third line, Schnarr/Raman lost to an on-fire team 2-8.  In singles the fight was on with the Hawks down 1-2.  First off was Shklyar at #4, but the rest of the matches were dogfights, including 4 three setters and a tight 7-5, 6-4 loss from Schnarr at #6.  Navratil lost his three-setter to give Gustavus 5 points and the match was stopped with Jake, Raman, and Cam all battling in their third sets.  To see all the scores from this battle, go to: http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/5/9/MTEN_0509151552.aspx

The women reached the third round (sweet sixteen) for the 4^th time in school history with wins over Grove City College (PA) http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/5/7/WTEN_0507150228.aspx and a thriller against Hope College http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/5/8/WTEN_0508153030.aspx   Let me tell you about the drama in this one.  Hope has great doubles, and Wallace/Beck were able to keep us in the match with their quick win at #2.  We lost at 1 and 3, so we were down 1-2 heading into singles.  Wallace was next off the court with a loss at #4, so we were now down 1-3 and in need of a win.  McGuire was the one that shifted the momentum for us with an impressive 6-1, 7-6 win at #2.  Humphreys then joined the action with a straight sets win over NCAA qualifier Nancy Benda.  So we were tied 3-3 with three 3-set matches going.  We needed two of them, and Beck obliged winning her third set 6-3.  She was up 5-1 then things got tight before she came up with a huge service game to win.  So now Alex Talyansky was at 4-4 in her third set and Dick was down 1-2 in hers.  Talyansky was in a marathon game, while Amanda Dick took a 4-2 lead.  Then Alex’s opponent took an injury time out after Taly took the 5-4 lead at the same time Amanda was up 5-3.  Amanda ended up sealing the deal with a great ground game when Alex was serving at 30all.  The team mobbed Amanda, who used her senior experience to give the team the huge win.  This now put us in the regional final against host and #1 seed, DePauw.  We came out the final day just a little flat, and DePauw was fired up with a huge crowd.  The Tigers played some great doubles and took a 3-0 lead.  There would be no big comebacks on this day, but we had many nice sets and some tight matches were still on when DePauw won 5-0.  To see all those scores, go to: http://uwwsports.com/news/2015/5/9/WTEN_0509151510.aspx

The end of this weekend means the end of team competition for the year.  But siblings Jake and Megan Humphreys continue on to the NCAA singles tournament next week in Mason, OH near Cincinnati where the ATP tournament the Western and Southern Open is played.  We are looking forward to playing on that facility.

Last week we had our annual team banquet at Cravath Lake Park in Whitewater.  It was a great celebration of two great seasons and I could not have been more proud!  See below for banquet photos.