Blugold women’s tennis sweeps away competition

After pair of weekend sweeps, the Blugolds have won six straight

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Although the forecast in Eau Claire last Friday called for grey skies and blustery winds, the Olson Courts in the McPhee Physical Education Center echoed of squeaking tennis shoes and cheers.

After being forced to play indoors due to inclement weather, the UW-Eau Claire women’s tennis team held its first home matches of the season by sweeping UW-Stevens Point 9-0 Friday afternoon and UW-Oshkosh by the same score Saturday morning.

Head coach Tom Gillman said the Blugolds are playing their best tennis of the year right now after winning their sixth match in a row, but they are just going with the flow.

“We aren’t thinking about wins and losses right now,” Gillman said. “We have no reason to change anything we are doing; we just need to keep focusing on getting even better and having fun.”

The Blugolds were victorious in all six singles matches Friday as they won in straight sets against the Pointers.

Senior Maddie Johnson won at No. 1 singles 7-5, 6-3. Meanwhile at No. 2 singles, junior Colleen McCullough won 6-0, 6-2. Senior Nicole Pothen also performed winning her match at No. 3 singles 6-3, 6-4.

In doubles, the combo of seniors Johnson and Maddie Rossebo won quickly at No. 1 doubles by a score of 8-1. Pothen and Kuepers kept thing going at No. 2 doubles earning a 8-2 victory.

Gillman said every player is playing at their highest level right now, but Rossebo has really shown him something of late.

“Maddie is normally the type of player that plays great, but late in the match will let her opponent fight back,” Gillman said. “However, these past few weeks she has shown us how good she can be and has fixed her bad habits.”

The results were similar Saturday morning as the Blugolds took on Oshkosh.

The team won five of six singles matches in straight sets. Johnson, McCullough and Pothen were all once again victorious at No.1, 2 and 3 singles respectively.

In doubles play, Johnson and Rossebo won at No. 1 doubles 8-6. At No. 2 doubles Pothen and Kuepers also earned a victory with an 8-2 win.

Senior Renee Nelson said the team really translated this past week’s practices into gameplay over the weekend.

“The girls took what we worked on this week and applied it to the court correctly,” she said. “The movement on the court was also really good. Being we were inside, play was much faster which made us even better.”

With the victories, Eau Claire improves to 6-1 overall. Since losing to UW-Whitewater in their first WIAC matches this season, they are 36-0 in four WIAC duals and 51-3 in individual matches over their six-match winning streak.

The Blugolds will be in play once again at 3 p.m. Friday when they travel to Division II Winona State University (Minn.).

“In order to keep the momentum we have already built, it will be important to be focused and really take time to work on things in practice,” Kuepers said. “We have some big matches coming up, and if our focus and motivation is there, I think we really have the ability to do some great things on the court.”