April 22, 2015 By Connor Moore
The UW-Whitewater men’s tennis team traveled to Eau Claire this past weekend for three WIAC tennis matches, sweeping UW-Oshkosh 9-0 in a dual match on April 17 and beating UW-La Crosse and UW-Eau Claire with scores of 8-1.
“They did great,” head coach Frank Barnes said regarding the entire weekend. “I felt it was good effort all across the board.”
The Warhawks began its weekend on Friday against UW-Oshkosh, where its won all three points in doubles behind an 8-2 victory from junior Matt Bisbee and freshman Zane Navratil in the third position and an 8-3 victory from sophomores Martin Beck and Scott Butler in the second positon.
Junior captain Michael Schnarr and sophomore Rithwik Rajshekhar Raman were at the first position, winning 9-8 (3) and improving their record playing together to 8-3.
In singles competition, Schnarr won 6-0, 6-0, at No. 4. Bisbee won at the fifth postion with scores of 6-2, 6-1 and freshman Matt Zurowski won at the sixth position with the same scores. Senior Ben Shklyar won 6-0, 6-2 in the third position, with Raman (6-1, 6-2) winning in the first and Navratil (6-1, 6-1) taking the second.
The Warhawks then continued its winning ways the following day against UW-La Crosse and UW-Eau Claire. With those victories, the team secured its tenth WIAC Final Four Tournament win in the last 11 years.
For Barnes, that accomplishment was never at the forefront of anyone’s minds or a remote topic of discussion.
“No, not at all,” Barnes said. “I didn’t say anything to add any unneeded pressure during practice. We treated this weekend like any other weekend. We had really good opponents this week, so we didn’t say anything about the streak.”
Starting against UW-La Crosse, the Warhawks took two of three doubles matches early behind Shklyar and junior Michael Treis, 8-3 victory at the number one position and Beck and Butler’s 8-6 victory at the third position. Raman and Navratil both extended the Warhawk lead to 4-1 with 6-1, 6-1 victories at the third and fourth positions respectively, with senior Captain Cam Laktash winning the match with a 6-1, 6-1 win at the sixth spot.
Shklyar won 6-1, 6-4 at the fifth position, followed by straight-set victories from Treis and junior Jake Humphryes.
In the match against UW-Eau Claire, Treis and Shklyar and won 8-4 in the first position followed by Raman and Schnarr with their 8-4 victory in the third position. Treis (6-0, 6-2) secured a victory at the second position, as did Bisbee (6-2, 6-1) at the sixth position. Raman clinched the match for the Warhawks with his 6-4, 6-2 victory in the third position.
“It felt good to go 3-0 on the weekend,” said Shklyar. “I definitely think everyone played well.”
In regards to the tenth straight WIAC Final Four tournament victory in 11 years, Shkylar said, “I think it just says nothing but good things about this program. Our talent, from my perspective, just keeps getting better and better each year. It just says a lot.”
The Warhawks return home Sunday, April 26 for a pair of dual matches against No. 36 Coe (Iowa) and Elmhurst (Ill.) on Senior Day, where Laktash and Shkylar will be recognized for their accomplishments.
