By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
The Rock Valley Conference Tournament took place on Sept. 22 for the Whitewater girls tennis team and according to head coach Tim Nelson, the girls played above expectations and he has never been more proud of his team.
The Whippets finished the conference tournament in a tie with East Troy for the title, but because East Troy defeated Whitewater in their dual, East Troy earned the overall championship.
“Ali Ketterhagen and Whitney Treder picked up Conference Championships at No. 3 and No. 4 singles capping off great seasons,” Nelson said. “Amanda Kraayvanger at No. 2 singles, Sydney Treder and Hailey Lohmeier at No. 2 doubles, and Odessa Sonn and Sophie Olson all lost some incredibly tough matches in the semi-finals. It would have been easy to fall apart after matches like that, but every one of them came back strong and won their third place matches in straight sets to take home a medal.”
The player of the tournament according to Nelson was Milena Maroske, the team’s top singles player. Maroske entered as the No. 5 overall seed.
“Opened up against McFarland who had beat her in straight sets during the season and pulled out a 6-4, 6-4 victory,” Nelson said. “In her next match she faced defending Conference Champ and two time State Qualifier Meredith Heckert and won an incredible 3 set match, including a 1-6 deficit in the third set super tie breaker.
“Unfortunately, she had a third match to play and after a hard fought 5-7 first set loss in the championship she just ran out of gas. It didn’t help that Jasmine Schoeller from Jefferson was playing incredibly great tennis herself. A No. 5 seed has never made it to the Championship at No. 1 singles in the conference ever before,” he added.
The tie for the conference title nearly wraps up the regular season for Whitewater, but the team has one final dual meet before WIAA Sub Sectionals begin. The final dual is set to start at 4:15 p.m. on Sept. 29 at Whitewater High School against Wilmot Union.
Following the Wilmot Union dual, Sub Sectionals are scheduled to begin on Oct. 3.
