Women’s tennis took to the road this weekend as they faced both Winona State and UW- La Crosse away. First stop for the Blugolds was in Winona, Minnesota in order to tune up for their Saturday match against La Crosse. In preparation for Saturday, the Ladies could only hope for a productive match.
Head coach Chris Kuna said that the real test was preparing for their biggest rival, La Crosse.
“The whole point in playing Winona state was to get us ready for Lacrosse, it was a very big point in the season,” Kuna said.
Winona state is a division 2 team, so the girls expected nothing less than a challenge. The women found some success in their 6-3 loss.
After picking up some speed on Friday against a strong Winona, Kuna and the Eau Claire team had their sights set on a victory against Lacrosse.
“We felt ready going into our match against La Crosse, we’re playing good tennis lately and I think confidence is a big factor,” Kuna said.
With an outstanding winning record this season, the lady Blugolds felt the momentum was in their favor.
Coach Kuna said Lacrosse is known to produce very close matches against our women’s team. The Blugolds lost 5-4 in a scrimmage to this team last year, so naturally a challenge was to be expected. Given Eau Claire’s history against La Crosse, the match could have gone in either favor.
One of the greatest hurdles for the women this weekend was the change in surface. Lacrosse is at a home court advantage in owning a surface much faster than that of the Blugolds.
Sophomore Maddie Johnson thought concentration was a key part to handling the court.
“The key was to stay moving because the ball comes so fast,” Johnson said. “If you stop moving will end up late every time.”
La Crosse is considered a very doubles-oriented team. This weekend, the Blugolds looked to their singles lineup to take on the majority of the challenge. Luckily, the girls were able to go into singles matches with a 2-1 lead from doubles after edging out both the second and third points in third set tie-breakers.
Singles play showed a great deal of push and pull as many of the matches were either won or lost in straight sets. Captain and one singles Taylor Heltne lead the team with a confident 6-2, 6-2 win. The rest of the match came down to two and three singles at 4-3. Both positions delivered in straight sets for a deciding 6-3 victory.
Junior Mary Frassetto thought the match was even throughout its entirety.
“In hindsight, I was a little nervous,” Frassetto said. “For a great deal of the match, the outcome was a toss-up … both teams are very competitive and we performed where we needed to.”
Looking ahead, this weekend marks the beginning of the WIAC conference tournament for the Blugolds. Keep your eyes out for results as the ladies aim to continue their commanding 9-2 winning streak at the end of their season.
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