Despite a few hard fought victories in doubles and singles competition, the Wisconsin women’s tennis team came up winless against three ranked opponents over the weekend. The Badgers faced No. 1 Duke, No. 14 Clemson and No. 9 Georgia Tech as they hosted the ITA Team Indoor Championship tournament.
Friday night, the Badgers took the court in the first round against the top-ranked Blue Devils.
The women lost their three doubles matches in the first contests of the evening. Co-captains Katya Mirnova and Jessica Seyferth played their opponents the closest, finishing two games behind at 8-6 in the No. 3 doubles slot. The duo would, however, continue to improve throughout the weekend.
Seyferth played a close match in the No. 4 singles slot against Duke’s Amanda Granson, who is ranked No. 80 nationally. Seyferth and Granson played game-for-game early on, but Granson came away with a 7-5 win in the first set.
Granson went on to win 6-2 in the second set and take the match.
“That was back-and-forth for awhile,” Seyferth said on her way off the court. “[Granson] came up big when she needed to.”
Even with the competition already decided, UW freshman Hannah Berner came away with a big win in No. 5 singles on Friday. After dropping the first set in six games to Duke’s No. 63 Monica Gorny, Berner stormed back to win the second and third sets and the match.
It would be the Badgers’ only win of the day, as Wisconsin lost 6-1.
In the first consolation round Saturday, Wisconsin faced the Clemson Tigers.
Clemson secured the doubles point by winning the No. 2 doubles match, followed shortly by the No. 1 match. Even with the doubles point already decided, Mirnova and Seyferth stuck out their No. 3 doubles match before ultimately losing 9-8.
Wisconsin’s lone win on the second day was Seyferth’s victory over Ina Hadziselimovic. Seyferth won the No. 3 singles match in consecutive sets, going 6-2 and 6-3. Seyferth’s win put the Badgers on the board but still down 3-1.
“Jessica Seyferth did a really good job against the girl from Clemson at No. 3,” UW head coach Brian Fleishman said, adding that it was a highlight of the weekend.
Alaina Trgovich played a tough match against Clemson’s Estefania Balda in No. 6 singles. After winning the first set 7-5, she lost the second set in six games. Trgovich battled Balda in the third set but lost the match with the final set, falling 7-6 to Balda.
The Badgers fell to the Tigers 6-1.
Wisconsin posted its best doubles scores of the weekend in Sunday’s consolation match against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. UW’s Markovich and Chupa lost 8-4 in No. 1 doubles play.
Berner and fellow freshman Kathleen Saltarelli fell 9-7 in No. 2 doubles play. Improving on their early play during the weekend, Seyferth and Mirnova won their doubles match 8-6 for Wisconsin’s first doubles match win of the weekend.
“Our No. 3 doubles team, Katya Mirnova and Jessica Seyferth, are playing extremely well,” Fleishman said. “They had match points on Friday and just didn’t capitalize. [Saturday], they played another good match and then [Sunday] they got their win.”
Sunday’s highlight for UW was in the No. 6 singles match. UW’s Trgovich beat Georgia Tech’s Hillary Davis in two consecutive sets, taking both at 7-5.
After losing the other four singles matches, Wisconsin dropped its third and final match of the weekend 5-1 to Georgia Tech.
Fleishman decided to forfeit Berner’s No. 4 singles game during the first set after Berner threw her racquet against the backstop. Berner was penalized earlier in the weekend for ball abuse.
“I pulled Berner because of behavior problems,” Fleishman said Sunday. “She got a point penalty yesterday, and she got another point penalty today … This is going to be a good learning lesson for her. Hopefully this will make her a better person, (and) better player next match out and for the rest of the season.”
Though the Badgers did not win any of their matches in the tournament, Fleishman thought his teams play improved as the weekend progressed. He also identified two things the Badgers will be working on this week to prepare for their Saturday match against Western Michigan at home.
“We played our best tennis against a tough team from Georgia Tech,” Fleishman said Sunday. “We know we need to get quicker. “A lot of our problem right now is we’re not getting in position for our shots. We’re going to work on our footwork and our first serve percentage needs to be higher.”
