The weekend brought nothing but success for the Wisconsin women’s tennis team.
The Badgers tallied victories over Drake on Friday and Western Michigan on Sunday at Nielsen Tennis Stadium to improve their season record to 6-2.
Both victories showcased UW’s aggressive play and ability to bounce back from early struggles.
No. 1 singles player Vanessa Rauh of Germany played a tough first set against Drake’s Cecily Dubusker. The set was highlighted by long rallies of deep ground-strokes. Rauh eventually broke ahead to take the first set 6-4 and used that momentum to boost her confidence and cruise through the second set 6-2.
“Once I got the first set, it seems I got a little nervous, I don’t know why,” Rauh said. “But I told myself if I can just get a head start and get a few games in a row, I felt like I had more room.”
Sunday, Rauh got the early lead on WMU’s Fredricka Girsang and sailed to an easy victory. Girsang simply had no answer for Rauh’s consistency. Rauh took the match 6-1, 6-1.
Linde Mues of Germany played No. 2 singles on Friday against Drake’s Annali du Bruyn. Mues dominated the first set and overcame signs of life from her opponent early in the second set to win 6-3, 6-2.
Things weren’t so easy for singles player Shana McElroy, however. In her match against Cindy Skogerboe of Drake, McElroy couldn’t keep the ball deep and her opponent took an early advantage. After a short chat with coach Patti Henderson during a changeover, McElroy took the first set 6-4 and retained her focus to win the second 6-4 as well.
The struggles continued for McElroy on Sunday when she faced WMU’s Melanie Remynse. After dropping the first five games of the match, she came back to win 7-5, 6-1.
Freshman Katie McGaffigan won both of her singles matches this weekend to improve her individual singles record to 6-2, tying her with Rauh and McElroy for the team lead in wins.
At the No. 5 slot, freshman Lindsay Martin won both of her weekend matches 6-1, 1-0 and 6-3, 6-2 to improve to 5-1. No. 6 player Lara Vojnov won both of her matches to improve her record to 3-1 on the year.
In doubles play, the serve-and-volley worked well for the No. 1 duo of Linde Mues and Lara Vojnov. They dominated the net and enjoyed two easy victories, as did the No. 3 pair of Martin and McGaffigan, who have yet to be beaten this season.
The No. 2 doubles team had a hard time dealing with the aggressive net play of Drake’s Cecily Dubusker and Jenny Saluri and dropped UW’s only match of the weekend 9-7. They regained their focus Sunday, however, with a strong 8-5 victory in which they managed to get most of their first serves in and charge the net.
Despite the one loss, Henderson had no complaints about her team’s dominant performance this weekend.
“One of our goals was to come out of the weekend 2-0 and not only did we do that, we won the doubles point on both days,” Henderson said. “When we had opportunities to take charge in the match and to not let our opponents feel like they had any opportunity to get back, our players did. It was great.”