The red-hot UW-Eau Claire women’s tennis team continued its winning ways in blowout wins Friday and Saturday at the McPhee Center.  They beat St. Scholastica 8-1 Friday night before shutting out Bethel (Minn.) 9-0 on Saturday.

The Blugolds haven’t lost yet this spring season, winning all six matches since starting back up on March 17.  Head Coach Tom Gillman said the women’s team is an incredibly focused group and the competitive, ambitious mindset of the team is a big reason why they have won six in a row.

“We hit the courts and we’re ready to go,” he said.  “We’re not a fun team to play if teams aren’t ready to play against this squad.”

St. Scholastica and Bethel found that out the hard way this weekend, as the Blugolds only had one loss in 18 combined singles and doubles matches between the two days.  Taylor Heltne didn’t lose a set all weekend, winning the No.1 Singles matches two days in a row, defeating Hillary Bungarden from St. Scholastica 6-4, 6-4 and then besting Abby Edin from Bethel 6-4, 6-3.

“I thought I did a really good of job of utilizing my entire game and utilizing the court surface as home court advantage,” Heltne said.  “I got off to really fast starts in both matches and was able to maintain.”

Heltne also teamed up with junior Katie Gillman to win the No. 1 doubles matches Friday and Saturday.  The duo defeated Bungarden and Alexis Gunderson from St. Scholastica 8-1 and then shut out Edin and Lisa Scheevel from Bethel 8-0.  After playing in some stressful matches over spring break, Heltne said the pair didn’t think too hard and just went out played the way they know how.

“We had fun, we were laughing, and we were doing things we know how to do without thinking about them,” Heltne said.  “Both teams we played weren’t bad teams, but we didn’t allow to even get anything because of how we were playing.”

Katie Gillman, who won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference No. 3 singles tournament this past October, also won both of her No. 3 singles matches last weekend, defeating Gunderson from St. Scholastica 6-2, 6-0 and Kristin Vivian from Bethel 6-1, 6-2.  After struggling in her last match over spring break, her turnaround last weekend caught the eye of her coach.

“We were happy to see that she learned from (that) and really hit the courts with a passion this weekend,” Tom Gillman said.

Katie Gillman said that she worked hard in practice over the last three weeks to correct herself from her last spring break match, and she said it paid off.

“I worked really hard to focus on moving my feet, that’s a big thing for me,” Katie Gillman said.  “I wanted to prove that the last match over spring break was just a fluke and I wanted to play my best to raise my level of play.”

Katie Gillman said the strong play this weekend gives them a lot of confidence moving forward, as the team has their sights set on the WIAC AQ Tournament April 27 in Whitewater, where they will get a chance to take down national powerhouse UW-Whitewater for the conference championship.

“As far as confidence, we know we can beat them if we play really well,” Katie Gillman said. “We belong in there, just like they do.”
The Blugolds next hit the court Sunday against Carroll and Edgewood in Madison.  They are scheduled to play Carroll at noon and Edgewood at 3:00 p.m.