MADISON, Wis. (April 5, 2024) – The now No. 28-ranked Denison University women's tennis team began its run at the 2024 Midwest Invitational with a 5-4 win over the No. 38-ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Friday at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. Denison trailed 4-2 before winning the final three matches at No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles to take the victory.
Denison fell behind early as
Dasha Chistyakova and
Maia Nowicki were defeated 8-0 by Cassanda Lee and Grace Ha, the No. 10-ranked doubles pair in the Central Region, at No. 1 doubles.
No. 2 and No. 3 doubles were both tied at 6-6 before
Peyton Oda and
Caroline Kittle got the Big Red onto the scoreboard with an 8-6 win over MacKenzie Lindow and Alexandra Repplier in the No. 3 spot.
At No. 2 doubles, however,
Kendall Schrader and
Caroline Lopez were defeated 8-6 by Kellie Ha and Molly Asfeld, making it a 2-1 UW-Whitewater lead.
The first singles match went to Kittle with a 6-2, 6-1 decision in the No. 3 spot over K. Ha, tying the match at 2-2.
Unfortunately, after Chistyakova fell to G. Ha 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2 singles, Oda, the No. 20-ranked singles player in the Central Region, came up short in a third-set super tiebreaker, 3-6, 6-0, 1-0 (10-8) against Lee, the No. 14-ranked player in the region, at No. 1 singles, bringing UW-Whitewater to within a point of clinching the win.
Lopez followed with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) win at No. 4 singles over Asfeld to make it 4-3.
With two matches to go, Schrader won 7-5, 6-1 over Repplier at No. 5 singles to tie the match at 4-4.
In the final match at No. 6 singles,
Anna Leach defeated Lindow 6-4, 6-2.
Denison improves to 10-5 overall with its eighth win in a row while UW-Whitewater falls to 8-4. In addition, the Big Red are now 5-4 all-time against the Warhawks.
With the win, Denison advances to the semifinals of the Midwest Invitational and will now play against No. 25 Grinnell College (18-2) at 8 a.m. Central Time on Saturday, April 6. Grinnell defeated No. 37 North Central College 6-3 on Friday. The other semifinal match on Saturday will feature No. 7 Washington University in St. Louis (10-2) against the hosts from Gustavus Adolphus College (8-6).
