Titans Travel To Madison For WIAC Championship
Second seeded Samantha Koppa at No. 2 singles will be UW-Oshkosh's highest ranked player for this weekend's Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Women's Tennis Championship (Presented by Culver's) in Madison.
Competition begins at 1 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 26) and 9 a.m. Sunday (Oct. 27) at the University of Wisconsin's Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
The 48th 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 2020 NCAA Division III Championship. UW-Oshkosh has qualified for the league's team tournament during each of the past nine 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-River Falls (2-4) (3 points); UW-Stevens Point (1-5) (2 points); and UW-Stout (0-6) (1 point).
This weekend, UW-Whitewater aims for its 13th straight WIAC title. The Warhawks collected their league-leading 19th conference championship a year ago with 21 overall points. 15-time champion UW-La Crosse finished second to UW-Whitewater with 17 points while 12-time champion UW-Eau Claire placed third with 16 and UW-Oshkosh fourth with 12.
Rounding out the team listings were fifth-place UW-River Falls with nine points, sixth-place UW-Stout with six and seventh-place UW-Stevens Point with three.
UW-Whitewater's Sabrina Palavra is a two-time singles champion and has claimed a doubles title. She is the defending champion at No. 3 singles after winning No. 6 singles at the 2017 championship. Palavra teamed with Jessica Minkov to win the No. 2 doubles crown a season ago. Minkov also won the No. 6 singles championship last year.
The Warhawks' Paige Nierman also owns a pair of singles titles, securing the No. 4 crown in 2018 after finishing first at No. 5 in 2017. UW-Whitewater's Madeline Slicker captured the No. 5 singles championship a season ago.
UW-La Crosse's Kaitlyn Kalinka and Maura Andersen are the defending champions at No. 3 doubles.
Koppa has an 8-3 record for UW-Oshkosh this season and will play seventh-seeded Jenna Koepp of UW-Stevens Point in her opening WIAC tournament contest at No. 2 singles. Koppa defeated Koepp by a 6-1, 6-1 result on Sept. 26.
Koppa, who owns a 42-33 career record, finished fourth at No. 3 singles (2018), No. 4 singles (2017) and No. 5 singles (2016) during each of her previous three WIAC Championship appearances.
UW-Oshkosh's Alyssa Leffler (No. 1 singles), Kelley Hodyl (No. 3 singles), Michelle Spicer (No. 4 singles), Lesley Kutnink (No. 5 singles) and Taylor Johnson (No. 6 singles) are all seeded fourth in their respective seven-player brackets.
Leffler will take a 9-6 season record into her first-round match against fifth-seeded Isabella Kranz of UW-River Falls. Leffler, who possesses a 39-44 career record, defeated Kranz, 6-0, 6-2, on Sept. 29.
Other UW-Oshkosh first-round matchups have Hodyl (7-3 season record) playing Marissa Delaney of UW-Stevens Point, Spicer (7-5) battling Gabby Potthoff of UW-River Falls, Kutnink (7-3) opposing Abbie Reed of UW-River Falls and Johnson (5-4) challenging Morgan Graf of UW-La Crosse.
In doubles play, all three UW-Oshkosh tandems are seeded fourth.
Hodyl and Koppa (8-4 season record) open against Lauren Couves and Elizabeth Wentzel of UW-Stevens Point in the first flight while Leffler and Spicer (8-4) make their tournament debut against Kailey Courteau and Karyn Duddeck of UW-River Falls in the second. Johnson and Kutnink (5-6 season record) begin their WIAC postseason experience against Potthoff and Reed of UW-River Falls at No. 3 doubles.