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Tennis falls in downtown visit
Experienced Marquette defeats young Panthers
By Ken Ryan
In college athletics, experience counts. It is something coaches cannot coach and players can only acquire by battling as hard as possible.
Unfortunately for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee tennis team Jan. 28, a part of the growing process is going on the road to face a more experienced lineup. Despite a tremendous effort, they came up short.
In the spring opener, Marquette knocked off the Panthers 6-1 at the Helfaer Tennis Stadium at Marquette University.
The current roster of Golden Eagles, which UWM head coach Matt McCaskill called the finest Marquette team that he has seen in the past five seasons, featured four upperclassmen. UWM had just one, including a lineup of four freshmen in the top four spots.
However, that did not prevent the Panthers from having solid performances. Milwaukee“s lone singles win came from sophomore Lauren Fenley of Racine. Fenley dominated Andrea Bukacek of Marquette 6-2, 6-1 in the No. 6 match.
McCaskill also was very pleased with the performances of No. 2 Kelly Drvaric, who fell 6-3, 7-5, and Traci Litscher, who lost a 7-6 heartbreaker before falling 6-1 in the second set.
McCaskill, now in his third year as head coach at UWM, gave this assessment of his team“s season opening performance.
“I think the biggest thing for our team is that we need to play with a little more confidence,” he said. “We need to know that we can compete with teams like Marquette. Until we can mentally recognize that we can compete with teams, it“s kind of an uphill battle when we get out on the court. But I thought the performances at 2 (Drvaric), 5 (Litscher) and 6 (Fenley) were tremendous.”
Up next for the Panthers is a road trip to Iowa, where they will face both Coe and Creighton. Those matches take place on Feb. 10 in Cedar Rapids.
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