The UW-Whitewater women’s tennis team was missing two of their top players on Friday, but that did not stop the Warhawks from taking down conference rival UW-La Crosse and Winona State in convincing fashion.
The teams’ top doubles tandem and one and four singles players, Kalla Schaefer and Alexandra Bayliss, were playing in the Division-III National Tournament in Mobile, Ala., resulting in their absence from the two important matches.
Because of their absence, the ’Hawks showed off their deep talent and pulled through in an exciting battle against the Eagles.
“The UW-La Crosse ladies were really pumped for this match and thought they had a good chance to beat us because we were missing a couple of our top players,” Head Coach Frank Barnes said.
The match turned out to be a dogfight after the Eagles stormed out to a 3-0 lead, winning every doubles match.
“Our captains Annie Smith and Sydney Divelbiss did a great job of keeping the ladies in the right frame of mind heading into singles,” Barnes said. “I said we needed five out of six singles wins and our captains said, ‘No, we’re getting all six.’”
The ’Hawks fought back in singles and every player stepped up and played great tennis. Even though the entire team had to play higher in the lineup than usual, the ladies played with confidence and won every singles match. Junior Lauren Aguilar clinched the victory with her third set victory. Sophomore Jackie Vitale also won in three sets to contribute to the singles sweep and a 6-3 team victory.
Abby Day, who stepped in at No. 3 doubles for the match, believes Barnes can take some credit for the bench players’ success.
“Coach gives the bench players a plethora of opportunities to improve in exhibition matches,” Day said. “In varsity matches, against weaker teams, and especially in practice when we get to play against some of the premiere players on our own team.”
After the women defeated the Eagles, they stomped Division-II Winona State winning 8-1. The win over Winona improved the Warhawks record to a perfect 10-0 with one remaining match on the schedule against another conference rival, UW-Eau Claire.
The ’Hawks will once again be at full strength for that match and are feeling very confident heading into the WIAC Tournament next weekend.
“We’ve won conference four years in a row and this year I have the best women’s team I have ever coached,” Barnes said. “I expected to have the best results ever this year and my ladies have still exceeded my expectations. Anything less than a conference championship would be disappointing to the ladies on this team.”
