The women’s tennis team went on the road to UW-Oshkosh and recorded a 9-0 victory for the second time this season on Oct. 2.  

The win against the Titans was the 93rd straight victory over a conference opponent, and put the Warhawks at 4-0 in conference, putting them in first place in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.    

“Everyone was very pleased with how they played,” junior Madeline Slicker said. “We had multiple matches where only a handful of games were lost in addition to two matches that went to a third set of tiebreaks.” 

The rain in Oshkosh over the days leading up to the match proved to be more of a problem than initially expected.

“We didn’t even play at the university because the courts were too wet,” Whitewater head coach Frank Barnes said. “We had to go over to the high school.”

All the matches on the day ended up being played on the courts at Oshkosh North High School.

On the doubles side, the Warhawks emerged with several quick victories. In the first doubles match, the pair of seniors Gabi Kitchell and Julie Martin won 8-2, extending their undefeated streak in conference when playing together. The other doubles matches went much the same way, with the freshmen team of Olivia Kraft and Molly Rueth winning 8-2, and the sophomore team of Paige Niermann and Allie Miller dominating their match with a final score of 8-1.

The Warhawks inserted a number of new faces into the lineup for this meet and saw no change in the final result.  

“All of them are always ready to go,” Barnes said. “I always like to work our bench players into the lineup.”

The singles competition was more of the same for Whitewater, with the victories coming in one after another.  

Kitchell continued her conference undefeated streak by winning her match 6-1, 6-0 in the number one singles spot.  She has not lost a singles match in conference play this season.

Martin secured a dominant victory with a score of 6-0, 6-0 in the second singles spot.  

The Warhawks also made a couple of comeback efforts to secure big victories. Slicker in the third set dramatically rallied back from an early deficit to claim victory in a super tiebreaker by a score of 10-4. Another comeback victory came in the final singles match of the day when Allie Miller came back after losing her first match 2-6, and followed up by winning the next round and the super tiebreaker by scores of 6-0 and 10-6 respectively.  

“Coming into this year there were multiple unknowns after losing such a strong senior class, however that has shown to not be an issue,” Slicker said. “As a team we are doing better than ever and are all excited to see where the season takes us.”

The Warhawks continued their season at home when they hosted the Warhawk Fall Invitational on Oct. 5 and 6. Visit uwwsports.com for more information on the invitational.

The next women’s match will take place Oct. 13 on the road against conference opponent UW-River Falls.