Titans To Perform At WIAC Tennis Championship
Samantha Koppa, seeded second at No. 4 singles, will be UW-Oshkosh's highest seed for this weekend's WIAC Women's Tennis Championship (Presented by Culver's) in Madison.
Competition begins at 1 p.m. on Saturday (Oct. 21) and 9 a.m. on Sunday (Oct. 22) at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
The 46th assembly of WIAC teams will finalize the league standings and determine six singles champions and three sets of doubles winners.
The initial day of competition 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.
The top four squads from this weekend's seven-team championship will advance to the WIAC Team Tournament in April. That event will be held at the site of the overall WIAC champion and determine the league's automatic qualifier to the 2018 NCAA Division III Championship. UW-Oshkosh has qualified for the league's team tournament during each of the past seven seasons.
The overall 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 finish accounts for the remaining two-thirds.
Point distribution following the dual meet rotation consists of UW-Whitewater (6-0 WIAC dual meet record) (7 points); UW-Eau Claire (5-1) (6 points); UW-La Crosse (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).
This weekend, UW-Whitewater aims for its 11th straight WIAC title. The Warhawks collected their league-leading 17th conference championship a year ago with 21 overall points. 12-time champion UW-Eau Claire finished second to UW-Whitewater with 17 points while 15-time champion UW-La Crosse placed third with 16, UW-Oshkosh fourth with 12, UW-Stout fifth with nine, UW-Stevens Point sixth with five and UW-River Falls seventh with four.
Individually, UW-Whitewater brings back three title winners from a season ago. Alexandra Talyansky claimed the No. 3 singles crown, while Jillian Wallace posted a first-place finish at No. 4 singles and Brittany Goebel at No. 5 singles. Talyansky won the No. 3 singles crown in 2014 and No. 4 singles championship in 2015. Wallace is also a three-time champion, securing No. 5 singles titles in 2014 and 2015.
UW-Whitewater's Bridgid McGuire emerged with the No. 3 singles crown in 2015.
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.
In doubles competition a year ago, Talyansky and Wallace teamed to win the No. 2 title, while Goebel was a member of the Warhawks' triumphant No. 3 squad. Wallace is a three-time champion at No. 2 doubles, adding titles in 2014 and 2015, while Talyansky contributed to the first-place No. 3 team in 2015. McGuire earned No. 1 doubles crowns at the 2014 and 2015 championships.
Koppa owns a 9-4 record for UW-Oshkosh this season and will play seventh-seeded Angelica Hernandez of UW-Stevens Point in her first-round contest at No. 4 singles. Koppa defeated Hernandez by a 6-0, 6-0 result on Oct. 5.
UW-Oshkosh's Bailey Sagen (No. 1 singles), Alyssa Leffler (No. 2 singles), Hannah Peters (No. 3 singles) and Lesley Kutnink (No. 5 singles) are all seeded fourth in their respective seven-player brackets.
Sagen will take a 5-9 record into her first-round match against fifth-seeded Brittany Asfeld of UW-River Falls while Leffler (6-8) opposes fifth-seeded Erin Lemmer from UW-Stevens Point, Peters plays fifth-seeded Annie Sandry from UW-River Falls and Kutnink (9-8) challenges fifth-seeded Gabe Kelch from UW-River Falls.
The final UW-Oshkosh singles competitor is Kelley Hodyl (8-4). She is seeded sixth at No. 6 singles will battle third-seeded Hannah Zevenhagen of UW-Eau Claire in the opening round.
In doubles play, UW-Oshkosh's tandem of Peters and Sagen (7-4) earned the third seed in the first flight. They will meet sixth-seeded Abbey Johnson and Emily Kleist of UW-Stevens Point in their first-round contest.
Koppa and Leffler (5-3) will be seeded fourth for the Titans at No. 2 doubles while Hodyl and Kutnink (3-3) will be seeded sixth at No. 3. Koppa and Leffler clash with fifth-seeded Lemmer and Kaylee Roberts of UW-Stevens Point, and Hodyl and Kutnink with third-seeded Maura Andersen and Kitren Bonine of UW-La Crosse in the opening round.