The UW-Whitewater men’s tennis team is off to a hot start to their 2023-2024 spring campaign, starting the season with a 12-2 record, including a 7-0 record at home. The Warhawks enter conference play on a 10-game winning streak, including a 2-0 record on their spring trip to South Carolina, where they beat Grinnell College and Oberlin College. From the last rankings, UW-Whitewater is No. 14 in the nation, with one of their losses coming against No. 7 Washington University in St. Louis, while they have a victory over No. 13 Gustavus Adolphus.
Luke VanDonslear, a senior team captain from Marion, Iowa, has been one of the best performers on the team through the season thus far, and he spoke on the season so far.
Q: Heading into this year, what were your goals, both personal and as a team?
A: Personally, my goal was to be able to win as many matches as possible for my team so we had the best chance to win. As a team, we would like to make it to the top 8th at nationals in the spring and we have a great chance to do that.
Q: You’re on a 10-game winning streak right now, what is the atmosphere like right now for the team and everyone as a whole?
A: The atmosphere is amazing. Everyone is excited to play every match and everyone brings the energy for every match as well.
Q: You went 2-0 on the spring trip, what was your favorite memory about the trip from those games?
A: I had a couple of tough matches this break and the second one was hard because I only broke serve twice in the entire match and it was kind of frustrating but I found a way to get through it.
Q: Who is someone that is impressing you so far this year?
A: Everyone on this team has impressed me this season because they all put in a lot of work and they deserve every single win they get.
Q: As we wind down towards the WIAC Championship in about a month, what are some challenges you may have?
A: We have a couple of tough matches coming up, especially Chicago, who is ranked fifth in the country, so before we focus on the WIAC tournament, we would like to do well against them.
The Warhawks open conference play Sunday, April 7, at UW-Stevens Point. Whitewater will look to beat Stevens Point, UW-Eau Claire, and UW-La Crosse in pursuit of the WIAC West championship and the right to play against the WIAC East Champion May 4. The aforementioned match against the University of Chicago is in Chicago, April 20.
