The Eau Claire women’s tennis team split wins this weekend at a tournament in Green Bay.

The Blugolds, who traveled to the east side of the state to play St. Norbert College (Wis.) and UW-Green Bay, returned home with a 7-2 victory over the Green Knights and 6-1 loss to the Green Bay Phoenix.

Although not present at the tournament, Coach Amanda Zenner believes the split-win is continuing proof of the team’s growing strength.

“I can’t speak on behalf of this weekend’s performance, (but) I can comment on how much improvement we as coaches have seen throughout the course of the season,” she said. “Every day the girls come to practice with the mentality of pushing each other and improving themselves as individual players.”

In the team’s initial game against St. Norbert, they dropped only the no. 4 singles and no. 2 doubles matches, resulting in an overall victory of 7-2.

Both losses were exceedingly close; junior Emily Hiebl on singles lost 2-6, 6-4, 10-8 to St. Norbert’s Ariel Bloniarz; the team of sophomore Taylor Heltne and junior Emily Knudson lost 9-8 (11-9) to the Green Knights’ Maria Slusarek and Laura Michel.

The rest of the team saw victory, including the no. 1 doubles team of junior Megan Born and Heltne, who crushed their opponents 8-4.

“(Our performance) was the best we’ve seen all season,” Born said. “Every person gave one hundred percent in every match.”

The next game against the Phoenix, however, proved more difficult. The Blugolds won only two matches: freshman Lexi DeMario, representing the no. 6 singles spot, won her first set 7-6 (7-3), lost her second 0-6, and then came back with a 10-7 win for the third set.

The no. 3 duo of freshman Mary Frassetto and sophomore Gretchen Bachmeier picked up the second win for the team against Green Bay, defeating their opponents 8-5.

The rest of the team fell short, giving the Phoenix a 6-1 victory.

Despite the loss, though, Born is still in high spirits.

“We’ve already improved so much this season that it’s hard to pinpoint one certain area for more improvement,” she said. “Our motto this year has been ‘No Naps, No Gaps.’ We’ve definitely done that.”

Zenner agrees, and said she feels good about the team’s upcoming tournament in October.

“Coach Gillman and I have repeatedly said that this team is special … we continue to improve and grow our confidence every day,” she said.

The Blugolds are now 3-3 for the season, and are set to play UW-Stevens Point at home on Friday, beginning at 3:30 p.m.