By David Paulsen
Correspondent
Playing 10 matches in six days, the Whitewater High School girls tennis squad emerged with seven wins, improving their overall record to 8-5 this season.
That is not bad for a team that lost most of their top players off the 2012 team that went 21-2. In addition, not one player is playing the same position as they were one year ago.
“We are going to struggle at times this year,” head coach Tim Nelson noted.
After opening the season 1-2 at the East Troy quad Aug. 19, the Whippet girls won two of three matches at their own quad Aug. 21.
Whitewater defeated West Salem and Lake Mills by identical 7-0 scores, but lost to Westosha Central 6-1.
“When we played teams that had the similar experience level that we had we did very well being able to pull out the key points in games,” Nelson said. “Our consistency with our shots was better.”
Westosha, which returns much of its 2012 team, was simply too strong for the Whippet girls. Nelson noted the Falcons dominated the competition.
Westosha lost only one match all day and that was at No. 2 doubles to the Whitewater pairing of Sally Hixson and Ali Sedmak. Hixson and Sedmak earned a tough 3-6, 7-5, 10-3 victory.
On Aug. 22, the Whippet girls headed to northern Wisconsin and began the trip with a 5-2 win over Black River Falls.
Chelsea Niemuth (No. 1 singles), Kacie Snyder (No. 2 singles), Grace Tisdale (No. 3 singles) all won.
In doubles action, Hixson and Sedmak (No. 2 doubles), and Melissa Mursch and Sarah Malek (No. 3 doubles) were also winners.
On Friday, the team competed in the Altoona Invite held at several locations in Altoona and Eau Claire.
The Whippets faced some very tough competition, winning just one of three matches. The girls lost to Baldwin-Woodville and to Amery, but defeated Durand.
In the Durand match, the two teams ended up playing two singles matches and five doubles matches.
“I was all for the change in set up in this match as I was still wanting to look at a few doubles combinations, so it went well for us,” Nelson said.
Overall, Whitewater defeated Durand 6-1.
The team finished up its northern trip with a 7-0 win at Sparta on Saturday.
Overall, Nelson was pleased with the team’s performance on the trip.
“We had some girls playing their first ever singles matches, and we had doubles teams that had never practiced together before,” Nelson noted.
Hixson and Sedmak had a great trip, going 5-0.
On Monday, Whitewater went 2-0 at its own triangular, defeating Columbus and Burlington Catholic Central. The girls defeated Columbus 6-1, and Catholic Central 7-0.
“Chelsea Niemuth (No. 1 singles) probably had the match of the day, as against Columbus she was down in both sets 4-3 and came back to win both of them,” Nelson said.
Schedule
The Whippet girls have no action until they host Big Foot in opening Rock Valley Conference action on Thursday, Sept. 5, at 4:30 p.m.
“We have some much needed practice time coming up to get ready for the conference season,” Nelson said.
