Feb. 13, 2011

Bradley Results |  Marquette Results

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's tennis team split a pair of Sunday matches, knocking off Bradley Sunday morning before falling to crosstown-rival Marquette later in the day.

Against the Braves, the Panthers (2-1) lost the doubles point but bounced back to win five of the six singles contests.

Marquette then swept past Milwaukee, which did get a strong performance by Brittany Skemp.

In the win over Bradley, top singles player Maddy Soule set the tone with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Nicole Miller. UWM then claimed each of its other four singles wins in straight sets, including a 6-0, 6-0 victory by Beth Ganser.

"Maddy Soule played outstanding today at the one-singles spot for us," UWM head coach Sean McInerney said. "She has been working on being more patient and she picked up a very good win over a good player."

UWM's performance against Bradley also again showed the Panthers' ability to fight back after dropping a doubles point.

"I was a little nervous coming into this match since we have not competed for 14 days and we got off to a really slow start," McInerney said. "Once again we did a great job of battling back to win five of the six singles matches. I am proud of the team for this win but we have to get much better. We are finding ways to win matches, though, which is the ultimate goal."

Skemp put up a great fight at number-five singles against Marquette's Chelsea Utting. After dropping the first set, 6-1, Skemp bounced back for a 7-5 win in the second set. Utting then pulled out a 10-5 victory in the tiebreaking third frame.

"Brittany did a great job fitting for every point," McInerney said. "She has been working really hard to improve her match tempo and I am really happy for her on how well she has played this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing her keep improving this season.

"Marquette is a very talented and deep team. I think we played very hard against them and competed much better then past years. I was very happy with the team, especially the middle of our lineup. We were able to really push some good players and I think this match will only give us confidence for the rest of the season."

The Panthers are on the road for four matches next weekend. Milwaukee will play both North Dakota and Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls before facing Western Illinois and Wisconsin in Madison.