Titans Go After Another Top-Four WIAC Championship Finish
UW-Oshkosh seeks its seventh consecutive top-four finish at the WIAC Women's Tennis Championship (Presented by Culver's) this weekend in Madison.
Competition at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium begins at 1 p.m. on Saturday (Oct. 22) and 9 a.m. on Sunday (Oct. 23).
The 45th collection of league teams will finalize the league standings and determine six singles champions and three sets of doubles winners.
The top four teams from this weekend will advance the WIAC Team Tournament, which will be held at the site of the overall conference champion during the spring to determine the league's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Championship. UW-Oshkosh has qualified for the league's team tournament each season since 2011.
This weekend, UW-Whitewater aims for a 10th consecutive WIAC title. The Warhawks secured their league-leading 16th conference title a year ago with 21 overall points to slip past UW-La Crosse's second-place total of 18. UW-Eau Claire placed third with 15 points, UW-Oshkosh fourth with 11, UW-Stevens Point fifth with 10, UW-Stout sixth with six and UW-River Falls seventh with three.
The team title will be determined by using a combination of the regular-season dual-meet standings and the WIAC Championship results. The finish in the regular-season standings accounts for one-third of the criteria while the conference championship accounts for the remaining two-thirds.
Point distribution following the dual-meet rotation consists of: UW-Whitewater (6-0) (7 points); UW-La Crosse (5-1) (6 points); UW-Eau Claire (4-2) (5 points); UW-Oshkosh (3-3) (4 points); UW-Stout (2-4) (3 points); UW-Stevens Point (1-5) (2 points); and UW-River Falls (0-6) (1 point).
The initial day of competition at the conference championship will consist of the first two rounds of doubles matches followed by the first round of singles contests. The second day of the tournament will feature the final two rounds of singles matches followed by the last round of doubles contests.
Individually, UW-Whitewater claimed all six singles titles a season ago and five performers are back, including Megan Humphreys, who is the reigning two-time WIAC Player of the Year. She won the No. 1 singles crown last season and the No. 3 singles title in 2013.
Additional returning champions for the Warhawks from last year also include: Gabi Kitchell (No. 2 singles); Alexandra Talyansky (No. 4 singles); Jillian Wallace (No. 5 singles); and Alicia Beck (No. 6 singles). Talyansky added the No. 3 singles crown in 2014 while Wallace won No. 5 singles and Beck secured No. 4 singles.
In doubles competition a year ago, Humphreys helped the No. 1 doubles team place first, while Wallace and Beck claimed No. 2 doubles and Kitchell and Talyansky No. 3 doubles. In 2014, Beck and Wallace were members of the winning duos at No. 1 doubles and No. 2 doubles, respectively.
At the 2014 championship, UW-Eau Claire's Sarah Henderson won the No. 6 singles title while UW-La Crosse's Bridget Bellissimo captured the No. 1 singles crown.
UW-Oshkosh's Bailey Sagen (No. 1 singles), Alyssa Leffler (No. 2 singles) and Samantha Koppa (No. 5 singles) are all seeded fourth in their respective seven-player brackets.
Sagen will take a 7-8 record into her first-round match against fifth-seeded Linsey Thisius (4-7) from UW-Stout while Leffler (9-5) opposes fifth-seeded Erin Lemmer (3-9) from UW-Stevens Point and Koppa (9-3) plays fifth-seeded Anna Lano (7-4) from UW-Stout.
Completing the Titans' singles competitors are fifth-seeded Hannah Peters in the third flight and Annie Docter in the fourth, and sixth-seeded Monica Micoliczyk in the sixth. All three Titans will face players from UW-Stout in the opening round.
Peters (4-7) plays fourth-seeded Katie Kreibich (7-5), Docter (5-7) opposes fourth-seeded Jenna Welke (7-5) and Micoliczyk (3-4) battles third-seeded Katie Govin (6-5).
In doubles play, the UW-Oshkosh is seeded fourth in the top two flights and seeded sixth in the third flight.
In the first flight, UW-Oshkosh's Peters and Sagen (7-5) will play fifth-seeded Lano and Thisius (7-6) from UW-Stout while the second flight will see Koppa and Leffler (9-5) opposing Abbey Johnson and Lemmer (5-7) from UW-Stevens Point. The third flight includes Titans Hannah Nauth and Ashlee Polena (2-4) taking on second-seeded Samantha Fleming and Lauren Weise (5-3) from UW-La Crosse.