Sept. 10, 2014

By Ryan Altman

UW-Whitewater Warhawks men’s tennis head coach Frank Barnes looked at last weekend’s inaugural Warhawk Invitational as an opportunity to experiment with a lineup currently riddled with injuries.

With sophomores Scott Butler, Martin Beck and Rithwik Raman sidelined, Barnes relied on several freshmen to get the job done at Wangerin Courts on Sept. 5 and 6 against teams from Division-I, D-II and NAIA institutions.

Only four flights of doubles were completed after rain ruined most of Friday’s singles matches. However, the ’Hawks made the most of the weather, winning three of four doubles flights.

Senior Ben Shklyar and junior Jake Humphreys won a pair of tight matches at No.1 doubles en route to an 8-6 finals victory over Ferris State’s Laurent Galarneau and Tyler Bridges. Their quarter-final and semi-final matches against Cardinal Stritch and Chicago State respectively, were both determined by tie-breaks.

“It’s tough playing three matches in one day, especially being the first tournament of the year,” Humphreys said. “But we played good and I’m excited for things this season.”

Senior Cam Laktash and freshman Zane Navratil won the No. 2 doubles title, dropping just 13 games total in three matches. Also victorious for the ’Hawks, were sophomore Justin Bowman and freshman Sebastian Lauterback in the No. 4 doubles flight final. They defeated Ferris State’s Simon Levy and Renan Baldi, 8-2.

On Saturday, singles competition proved a bit more difficult for the ’Hawks. Out of eight singles flights, Navratil and junior Michael Schnarr were the only two ’Hawks that reached championship matches, while Navratil was the only player to reach finals in both singles and doubles.

After dropping the first set in the No. 3 singles championship match, 4-6, Navratil rallied to take the second, 6-1, and then won a ten-point tie-break to win his second title of the weekend.

“I kind of expected [Zane] to do well in doubles, but not in singles since he was moving all the way up to the No. 3 singles spot,” Barnes said. “He was very impressive in doubles.”

In the No. 5 singles championship, Schnarr took an early match lead at 6-3, but eventually dropped both the second set (3-6) and the ten-point tiebreak (5-10).

Additionally, sophomore Venkatesh Yuvaraj finished fourth in flight No. 8 to round out the top ’Hawk finishers on day two.

Season Preview

Although the fall is technically the non-traditional segment of the ’Hawks’ schedule, it does include two large-team tournaments- the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Championships in St. Peter, Minnesota on Sept. 26 and the ITA National Small College Championships in Fort Myers, Florida on Oct. 9.

The ’Hawks regular season does not begin until Jan. 23 against Northern Illinois University.

With the team dealing with many lingering injuries, Barnes is hopeful that everyone is fully healthy by the ITA Regionals.

“The key to this season is avoiding injuries,” Barnes said. “All these guys should have a better season.”

Perhaps the team’s biggest task this fall is replacing the program’s all-time wins leader, Byron Balkin, who recorded a combined 173 wins at singles and doubles during his four years at Whitewater. Balkin joins Barnes’ staff in 2014 as an assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s teams.

Despite the loss of Balkin, Humphreys said the team will embrace new leadership, especially with Laktash, who was named one of two team captains.

“Cam has stepped up and taken a similar role that Byron had,” Humphreys said. “We have a very young team and there are a couple of freshman that should be in the lineup. He’s done a really good job.”