MADISON, Wis. (Blugolds.com) - For the third year in a row, the UW-Eau Claire women's tennis team finished third at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
Eau Claire finished with 15 points in the overall championship while UW-Whitewater won its fourth straight title and 11th in program history after finishing with 21 points. UW-La Crosse took second place with 18 points and UW-Oshkosh recorded 12 points for fourth place.
Megan Born (Jr.-Antigo, Wis.) claimed the No. 1 singles title after winning two matches. She received a first round bye as the No. 1-seed and started off in the second round defeating UW-Stout's Allie Hinman 6-4, 6-4. In the championship match, Born defeated UW-Whitewater's Amy Siemon 6-3, 6-2 to win the title. At last year's WIAC Championship, the pair faced off in the No. 3 singles championship and Siemon defeated Born 6-0, 6-0.
Freshman Katie Gillman (Red Wing, Minn.) had a good championship, finishing as the No. 3 singles runner-up. The No. 3-seed coming into the championship, Gillman won 6-1, 6-0 in the first round and followed that with a win by walkover in the second round. In the championship match, Gillman fell 6-1, 6-0 against Whitewater's Megan Kasten to finish second.
The Blugolds also had the following finishes in the other singles matches: No. 2 – Fourth for Taylor Heltne (So.-Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley); No. 4 – Fourth for Gretchen Bachmeier (So.-Eau Claire, Wis./North); No. 5 – Fourth for Emily Hiebl (Jr.-Wausau, Wis./East); No. 6 – Fourth for Lexi DeMario (Fr.-Verona, Wis./Verona Area).
In doubles play, Gillman and Heltne claimed the Blugolds' best finish, taking third in the No. 2 doubles flight. The duo opened with an 8-1 win but fell in the second round, 9-8 to the eventual champions. In the third-place match, the pair won 8-4 over UW-Oshkosh's Whitney Tornow and Lauren Piotrowski.
At No. 3 doubles, Bachmeier and Mary Frassetto (Fr.-Oshkosh, Wis./West) took fifth place while Born and Hiebl were sixth at No. 1.
UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater advance to a team tournament to decide the conference's automatic qualifier for the NCAA Division III Championship. The WIAC team tournament will be held at UW-Whitewater the weekend prior to the NCAA championship in the spring.
The team title was determined using a combination of the regular season dual meet standings and the conference championship results. The finish in the regular season standings accounted for one-third of the criteria, while the WIAC championship accounted for the remaining two-thirds.
An All-Sportsmanship Team was chosen for individuals that displayed exemplary sportsmanship throughout the season. It included one member from each school. Named to the squad were: UW-Eau Claire's Stephanie Wolf (Fr.-Verona, Wis./Verona Area), UW-La Crosse's Kelly Stadum, UW-Oshkosh's Whitney Tornow, UW-River Falls' Amanda Drangeid, UW-Stevens Point's Allison Fortier, UW-Stout's Katie Sorensen and UW-Whitewater's Lauren Aguilar.
