ELKHORN, Wis. (Blugolds.com) – The UW-Eau Claire women's tennis team opened the day with a 5-0 victory over UW-Oshkosh but fell 6-0 to 18th-ranked UW-Whitewater to finish in second place at the WIAC Team Tournament today.
Whitewater automatically qualified to compete in the NCAA Division III Championship by picking up two wins today. The Warhawks also beat UW-La Crosse earlier in the day 5-1.
Facing the Titans, the Blugolds swept doubles competition while winning the No. 4 and No. 6 singles matches.
Katie Gillman (So.-Red Wing, Minn.) and Taylor Heltne (Jr.-Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley) along with Lexi DeMario (So.-Verona, Wis./Verona Area) and Mary Frassetto (So.-Oshkosh, Wis./West) won with scores of 8-4 at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, respectively. Gretchen Bachmeier (Jr.-Eau Claire, Wis./North) and Maddie Johnson (Fr.-Lakeville, Minn./South) won 9-7 in the No. 2 spot.
In singles play against Oshkosh, Johnson won 6-0, 6-2 at No. 4 while DeMario won 6-2, 6-4. The rest of the matches either went unfinished or were never started.
Against the Warhawks, Gillman played in the closest match of the day at No. 3 singles. She lost the first set 6-2 but came back to win the second 6-1. She then fell just short 10-5 in the super-tiebreaker.
The Blugolds are now 17-6 on the season and will now wait to see if they earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships. Selections will be announced May 7.
-KM-