Nothing like closing out the non-conference schedule with a sweep.
The Wisconsin women’s tennis team (9-4, 0-1 Big Ten) posted a 7-0 shutout of in-state rival the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Saturday to continue its dominance over the Warhawks.
Wisconsin has never lost to Whitewater in nine meetings and continued that trend to extend the streak to 10 matches.
Head coach Brian Fleishman was happy with his team’s performance over the weekend and enjoys the annual meeting with UW-Whitewater.
“To play Whitewater, it’s good politics,” Fleishman said. “It’s good to play other UW schools. We look at it as a sort of festival of tennis. The Whitewater people come down and we usually get a good crowd out for it. It’s a fun match.”
“From a competitive standpoint I thought that we focused really well and we took care of our business that we needed to take care of.”
The Badgers made quick work of their singles matches with each player winning in straight sets and only gave up a total of 13 games to the Warhawks in singles play.
The No. 1 singles match featured Alaina Trgovich for Wisconsin and Kalla Schaefer for Whitewater. Trgovich came into the match riding a four-match win-streak in singles play and looked to extend that streak.
It was a hard-fought first set that saw the fifth year senior, Trgovich, pull it out with a score of 6-4. She then overpowered Schaefer in the second set, winning 6-2 and extending her winning streak to five matches.
Fleishman couldn’t be happier.
“Alaina is playing exactly the way a senior is supposed to be playing,” Fleishman said. “She’s doing a great job for us. Right now she is probably our best player we got. She has accepted that challenge, and she is playing extremely good tennis right now.”
In the No. 2 spot Sarah Loebel defeated Sydney Divelbiss 6-1, 6-0. At No. 3 Hannah Berner took care of business against Whitewater’s Annie Smith, winning in straight sets 6-0, 6-1.
Senior Angela Chupa held the No. 6 position in singles play and didn’t give up a single game to the Warhawk’s Lauren Aguilar, winning a combined 12-0.
“It was in general a good day,” Chupa said. “I was just taking it one point at a time. It gave me a chance to work on some things.”
Chupa was successful in her doubles match as well with the help of partner Aleksandra Markovic, winning the No. 2 spot, 8-3.
Chupa was happy with her play in the doubles match and looked at it as an opportunity to work on her game.
“It was good,” Chupa said. “My doubles partner and I are working on some things like trying to be more aggressive and coming to the net more. So I think that will translate into some more wins when we need it.”
The Badgers took the doubles point winning all three matches on Saturday.
In the No. 1 doubles match, Trgovich and Hannah Berner won 8-4 over Kalla Schaefer and Alexandra Bayliss after being down 2-1 in the beginning of the match, while the No. 3 doubles pair, Caroline Bauer and Lauren Gruber, took over the court by blanking the opposition.
With the match on Saturday the Badgers finished up their non-conference season, going 9-3 over the stretch. Wisconsin hopes the success in the first part of their schedule translates to wins in the upcoming Big Ten season.
“I feel pretty prepared,” Chupa said. “We had some tough matches in our non-conference season. We were really able to get ready for the Big Ten season. The Big Ten is much stronger this year, so it will be a lot of fun and very interesting.”
