Iowa, 09/11-12
Posted: 09/14

As the women’s tennis team went into this past weekend facing a trio of matches, head coach Craig Monson said the goal was to win all three. The Blugolds fell just shy of that goal, but still managed to win two of the three and improved with each match.

“I think we played well, I think we are getting better,” Monson said. “We were real competitive . which helped us to get ready for our conference matches.”

The team defeated Wartburg College (Iowa) on Friday night 7-2 at Hoover Fieldhouse. Wartburg came away with wins in both No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles, but the Blugolds took the rest. Senior Brenna McCormick won No. 2 singles 6-4, 7-5 while sophomore Megan Born was able to bounce back from a 2-6 loss in the first set to finish 6-3, 10-6 and win the No. 3 spot.

Senior Erin Welch won the No. 4 spot 6-3, 6-1, while freshmen Taylor Heltne won the No. 5 spot 6-3, 6-0. Junior Michelle Reinders finished out the singles by taking No. 6 6-4, 7-5. In the doubles competition, McCormick and Welch defeated the Knights 8-6 in the No. 2 match, while Born and Heltne won 8-5 in the No. 3 spot.

The Blugolds then traveled to Decorah, Iowa, for their matches with Luther College (Iowa) and Cornell College (Iowa) Saturday. In the first match of the day the team was defeated by Luther College 6-3. Born took No. 3 singles 6-1, 6-3 and Michelle Rainders won the No. 6 singles 6-1, 6-3. The other Blugold singles win came from Heltne who won No. 5 singles 6-0, 10-5 after losing the first set 1-6. Luther took all three doubles matches.

Finishing off the weekend, the team defeated Cornell College 6-3. No. 1 singles competitor senior Gina Dahl won 6-1, 6-1 while Born cleaned up the No. 2 position 6-3, 6-3. Heltne once again took No. 5 singles 6-0, 6-1 while freshmen Gretchen Bachmeier stepped into the No. 6 singles and won 6-1, 6-3. In doubles action, McCormick and Welch won the No. 2 match 8-1, while No. 3 team Heltne and Hiebl captured the final win of the weekend 8-0.

The Blugolds (3-1) are off until Friday, Sept. 25, when they head to UW-Stevens Point. The matches are scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. In the meantime, Monson said the team will work hard to make some tweaks on things that need to be improved. He said he hoped that having some freshmen in the lineup over the weekend matches will also help the team be better and ready to play good conference matches.

“We’ve been going now for three weeks so it will be nice to have a little break,” Monson said. “We’ll be ready to play, that won’t be an issue.”