It was a great day for UW-Whitewater women’s tennis as they earned the right to move on to the NCAA Tournament as an automatic qualifier by winning the WIAC Final Four AQ Tournament for the 17th straight time. The Warhawks defeated UW-Stevens Point and UW-Eau Claire to punch their ticket to the big dance. It was also Senior Day as Whitewater celebrated their seniors, and one of them is running it back after an injury-riddled season.
Cassie Lee announced during the Senior Day recognition that she will be returning for a fifth season after being out all of this year. Lee will not be able to play in the fall, but will return for the spring portion of the season. Lee will help on the sidelines being an assistant coach while recovering from her injury.
“It almost seemed too easy,” Lee said of the decision. “The one concern I had about coming back was the grad program that I’m doing is completely online. But I thought more about it, and it just didn’t feel right to leave so soon. So I wanted to stay for a little bit longer.”
On the court, the Warhawks defeated the Pointers in the semifinals 4-0. The doubles teams won all their matches with Gracie Ha/Abby Weaver, Crystina Lee/Molly Asfeld, and Ava Andrae/Alex Repplier picking up wins. Ha, Weaver and Lee all won their singles matches, completing the sweep of Stevens Point and moving on to the WIAC Championship. Eau Claire beat UW-La Crosse 4-3 in the other semifinal match, setting up the finals.
Whitewater won the WIAC Championship in a gutsy performance against Eau Claire, winning by a score of 4-1. Lee/Asfeld and Andrae/Repplier cruised to a win in their doubles matches, but Ha/Weaver were in a grudge match with theirs. They were down 1-5 in the match until eventually going on a 6-0 run, winning 7-5.
“We were down one-five, and it was a deuce point,” Weaver said. “And we just turned to each other and we said, ‘You know what, we’re gonna play our game and they’re gonna have to beat us.’ And we just hit high and deep balls the entire time, and then tried to attack when we could, and it was on our side.”
The singles matches were no different. Weaver and Asfeld controlled their matches on the way to wins, but the rest struggled until Repplier won the clinching match 6-3, 6-4 to bring home the 17th consecutive WIAC Tournament Championship.
“Feels great, a little bit of a relief,” head coach Frank Barnes said. “We knew it would be a tough match, and it’s always tough when you’re the one seed, because the pressure is on you. But I think having a quick first match really helped. We got off the court quickly and had our bodies well-rested for the second match. We just got a lot of balls in play, so we had to be really patient and not just really focused on not making any unforced errors.”
The Warhawks will play in the NCAA Regionals May 9. The time, location, and opponent are yet to be determined.
