Woes continued for the UW-Milwaukee women’s tennis team as they fell to Drake in a 0-7 loss Saturday afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa.
Trouble began for the Panthers immediately as doubles play began. Beginning with a bagel defeat, losing 6-0 at the second flight, the doubles teams slowly began to gain confidence. Freshman Mardee Merar and partner junior Dana Shannon earned the team’s best performance, falling 7-5 at the third doubles flight. The Panthers lost the doubles point without winning a single match.
“Drake is a very solid and deep team,” said Milwaukee head coach Maddy Soule. “They have become a lot stronger under new coaching and, despite some battles, we weren’t able to find any wins.”
The quality of play did not improve for the Panthers upon moving into singles play. Senior Chelsea Bailey at the top flight started slowly with the first set. She picked up her play as the match went on, but eventually lost the second set and the match. Farther down at the fourth spot, sophomore Hayley Marshall started out her match promisingly; however, she lost the first set 6 games to 4, and the match quickly trailed off after. All of the Panthers struggled throughout the day, with the team claiming no victories in singles play.
Fortune did not in fact favor the Panthers Sunday morning, as they were defeated by Iowa State 0-5 in Ames, Iowa.
Doubles play mirrored the results of the day before, with all three Panthers doubles teams falling, being quickly overpowered by their opponents with only the top flight winning more than one game.
Singles continued with misfortunate play that has plagued the Panthers over the weekend. Four of the matches ended with straight set loses, with none of them showing signs of quality play throughout. The last two singles matches featuring senior Christina Colarossi and Merar were both cut short, due to Iowa State having already won the matchup.
Milwaukee drops to (2-8) after the unfulfilling weekend in the neighboring state. The Panthers will continue play next weekend down in Chicago against DePaul in their last non-conference match of the spring.