By Cameron Schwarz

March 2, 2016

The No. 26-ranked UW-Whitewater men’s tennis team suffered a 7-0 defeat against Division-I opponent UW-Green Bay on Feb. 26.  The loss dropped the ‘Hawks to 7-4 on the season.

Despite getting swept, head coach Frank Barnes said he was pleased that his team competed against a quality opponent.

“We showed that we have the ability to play with a Division-I caliber team,” Barnes said.  “And not just an average team, but a team who beat the Badgers  (UW-Madison) last year and won the Horizon League.”

Senior Jake Humphreys came back to play after sitting out the Warhawk Invite due to a back injury.  In No. 1 singles, Humphreys was the only player to steal a set from UW-Green Bay, winning his second set 5-7, then losing the third-set 10-point tiebreaker 10-8.

“It was nice to see Jake Humphreys’ back healthy,” Barnes said. “He still has the back issues but we were curious to see how he would respond with the week off. Having him healthy and back in our lineup is a positive in itself.”

The ’Hawks were unable to pick up the slack after they were adjusting to the speed of a D-I team.

“It was a good eye opener for us because they’re a better team that we’re going to play all year,” Humphreys said.  “We had a wake up call when we started singles off bad.”

No. 2 senior Michael Treis and No. 3 junior Ritwik Rajshekhar Raman had similar scores, losing 6-3, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-3,  while No. 4 sophomore Grant Thompson and No. 5 sophomore Zane Navrital lost 6-1, 6-4 and 7-5, 6-2.

At No. 6 singles senior Matt Bisbee kept it fairly competitive but still failed in two sets with a score of 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

“We came in confident but we started off slow because we maybe weren’t mentally prepared,” Humphreys said.  “We never got into a rhythm until it was too late.”

The doubles were unable to get on the winning side of things as they were swept in all three of their matches.  The No. 1 and 2 pairing of Treis and Humphreys and junior Scott Butler and Raman both lost 6-4.  The No. 3 squad finished up the day losing 6-3.

Doubles play is one area the ’Hawks will look forward to its next match against Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.) on March 5 in West Bend, Wis.

“We’re going to work on our quick hands, net plays and doubles in general,” said Barnes.  “We’re also going to try and create some big match pressure point situations in practice.”

The UW-W men’s tennis team also hosted the alumni tournament on Feb. 27, which brought back a lot of its former players.

“It’s a good time to stay in touch with the former players,” Barnes said. “We’ll play as much tennis as we can then go out to dinner.”