Injuries have been the early story of the season for a relatively young Badger women's tennis team. Before opening on the road to mixed results in Charlottesville, Virginia and then returning home to a 7-0 victory over Northern Illinois last weekend, the team saw three key players receive medical attention.
True freshman Liz Carpenter suffered a back injury over the break, but has since returned to the court and managed a straight set victory Saturday.
"I just had a muscle spasm. Like a back spasm," Carpenter said. "It was just really, really tight for a couple days and did a lot of stem treatment and now it's fine."
Things have been more serious elsewhere, though, with two of the squad's three sophomores sidelined through the most recent match due to their ailments.
Returning sophomore Nicole Beck is currently suffering from mononucleosis, which has kept her out of practice and off the competitive court thus far this season.
"It's mono. It's kind of one of those rest and keep getting checked on [things]," head coach Patti Henderson said. "She wants to be healthy … She's going to do everything she can to get herself fit."
And Morgan Tuttle, a first year Badger who transferred from Iowa, has been sidelined for the singles game due to a back problem. She was, however, active on the double court against Northern Illinois.
"I would love to have [Morgan and Nicole] back tomorrow. But it is an issue of time … I would rather go slow and when they're ready to come in, hopefully they're there for the rest of the season," Henderson said.
"As opposed to throwing them in for a match and next thing you know they're out for another week or two weeks, because that way they can't get better … And it doesn't give our team any consistency," Henderson continued. "Maybe we'll see one or two of them next week in some form, but I don't know."
And teammates share Henderson's sentiment, as both injuries have caused the lineup to be shuffled and forced certain players to contend in higher positions than they would normally be assigned.
"Beck is a solid player. She's one of the awesome players. And to have her out — and to have Morgan out, who is also above me — I'm having to move up in the ranks. I'm only a freshman," Carpenter said. "There's a depth to the team that's decreasing."
Rank and File: The season has gotten off to a positive start for the team, though, despite the battery of injuries. The Badgers emerged from a challenging three-day tournament in Virginia with mostly positive results and made quick work of the aforementioned Northern Illinois squad.
The team is currently ranked No. 34, a notable bump from their No. 48 spot at this time last year. And top singles player Caitlin Burke is sitting on a No. 32 national ranking, again a marked improvement over the No. 99 seed she enjoyed a year ago. (Though the team's previous ace, Katie McGaffigan, was ranked higher than Burke last January, even she was spotted at No. 53.)
"I'm really trying — on my forehand especially — to throw up a lot of heavy balls. And I'm working on my serve especially," Burke said when asked what has improved her game. "So those are the two things I've been improving the most."
The team's other ranking belongs to the No. 33 doubles pairing of Burke and Beck. But that duo has been inactive thus far this season due to Beck's aforementioned ailment.
