Following a challenging weekend in Ohio, the schedule ahead of the Milwaukee women's tennis team this week does not let up, starting with the short drive to Madison to take on a nationally-ranked Wisconsin squad.
 
Then, on the weekend, it's back home to welcome Illinois State to River Glen Elite Saturday afternoon.
 
Thursday's match at UW is at Nielsen Tennis Stadium, ranked by USTA as one of the finest tennis facilities in the country, and will get underway at 1 p.m. The match will also feature live statistics and live video for fans to follow along with the action. All links are available on the MKEPanthers.com website.
 
The home match Saturday afternoon will also get underway at 1 p.m. against the Redbirds. River Glen Elite, the home of MKE Tennis, is located at 2001 Good Hope Road in Milwaukee (53209), a half-mile west of I-43 between River Hills and Glendale. Admission is free.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
The Panthers and Badgers are squaring off for the first time since 2018, with UW leading the all-time series by a count of 5-0. The 2023 version of the squad is 3-2 on the season after having its two-match win streak snapped against No. 5 Duke. The Badgers are ranked No. 25 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Top 25 Coaches Poll this week and their other loss is to No. 2 North Carolina. Kelcy McKenna is in her seventh season as head coach. A year ago, the Badgers had a standout season, posting a 17-8 overall record with an 8-3 mark in Big Ten play. Ava Markham was one of four unanimous All-Big Ten selections and finished No. 96 in the ITA national singles rankings. The Badgers checked in at No. 45 in the final national rankings, marking the third straight season where Wisconsin was ranked in the final poll.
 
Illinois State is 2-0 on the young season after collecting a pair of 6-1 victories over Eastern Illinois and Illinois-Springfield this past weekend. Head coach Maja Kovacek has returned the program to the top of the Missouri Valley Conference, having led the Redbirds to back-to-back league regular season titles, two NCAA Tournament appearances and a 18-2 record in league play the past five seasons. Last year the squad finished 17-7 overall, 4-1 in the MVC, and fell to Ohio State in the NCAA Tournament. The Redbirds were picked second (to league newcomer Belmont) in the MVC preseason poll and are led by two-time MVC All-Conference selection and 2021 MVC Player of the Year, Tijana Zlatanovic, at the no. 1 spot. They lead the all-time series, 6-0, with the two teams playing for the first time since 2014.
 
LAST WEEK
The Panthers showed great improvement on the court in a pair of weekend matches, but did fall to Miami (OH) and Dayton. The Panthers nearly earned the majority of singles decisions against the Flyers, getting victories from both Nadiia Konieva and Anouk Ma-Ajong as well as a tough, hard-fought loss by Sara Simonova and a closely-contested match-up from Anika Tylek.
 
Ma-Ajong cruised at No. 6, topping Jordan Mitchell 6-3, 6-1. Konieva needed to work extra, hanging on to defeat Laura Greb by a final score of 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4), in back-to-back tie-breakers.
 
QUICK PREVIEW
Hopes are high this spring for the Panthers and first-year head coach Ryan Kucera, after the team claimed a best-ever runner-up finish at the Horizon League Championships last year. The squad fell to No. 2 Youngstown State in a heartbreaker of a championship match, 4-3, after knocking off top-seeded Cleveland State in the semifinal round.
 
Kucera comes to Milwaukee after two years at Minnesota State University, Mankato, earning Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Coach of the Year honors last season following a very successful campaign on the courts. He led the Mavericks to a 16-10 record, which included an 8-3 ledger in NSIC play. In the process, he guided the program to the largest single-season turnaround in conference history, going from 11^th place to third place in just one year.
 
ROSTER MAKEUP
The current MKE roster comes from an extensive background of seven different countries and will consist of a pair of Panther veteran returners in Anika Tylek and Iva Stejskalova, as well as second-year players Babette Burgersdijk and Giorgia Cavestro. Newcomers include Nadiia Konieva, Anouk Ma-Ajong, Alice Shields, and Sara Simonova.
 
Tylek is in her fourth season with the Panthers, having recorded 14 wins in singles and seven in doubles last year. Stejskalova is in her third year at MKE and posted a team-high 16 doubles victories last season as well as seven in singles play.
 
Milwaukee did lose a couple of key pieces to graduation, including Horizon League First-Team honoree Mayya Perova, who capped off her senior season with a career best 19-8 overall record in singles and tallied 15 more victories in doubles. Perova recorded a 10-match win streak during the season, while competing primarily from the No. 2 singles line (13-4) but also went 6-1 from the No. 1 position. She graduated as the winningest doubles player (win percentage) in program history at .722, going 70-27 in her career.
 
FALL FESTIVITES
This fall, Milwaukee competed in five different tournaments, visiting Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan, in addition to an event in-state. Shields went 10-4 to pace the Panthers in singles victories during the fall slate, while Shields and Konieva both went 9-6 to top doubles action.
 
Milwaukee has been picked to finish sixth in the league this season in a poll of the league's coaches, despite that very strong finish to their campaign a year ago. The Panthers finished 3-3 last spring and went into the Horizon League Tournament as the No. 4 seed. Youngstown State was the selection to win the league crown.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
The Panthers have been stellar at home of late, going 25-11 over the past four-plus years (2-0 in 2023), including a 10-3 mark in 2021. Last season, MKE claimed victories in three of its final four home duals heading into the postseason.
 
UP NEXT
The Panthers remain at home for a pair of matches next week, playing host to Gustavus Adolphus Saturday and Eastern Illinois Sunday. Start time for both matches is set for 1 p.m.