Following a stretch off from competition over spring break, the Milwaukee women's tennis team returns to action this weekend.
 
The Panthers hit the road, traveling to take on former league foe Valparaiso Saturday afternoon at The Courts of Northwest Indiana. The match will get underway at 2 p.m.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Valparaiso is 9-4 this season and coming off an 11-12 season a year ago. Most recent results have the team on a two-match losing streak, coinciding with the start of Missouri Valley Conference action, falling to Murray State (5-2 March 18) and Belmont (4-3 March 19). After posting a perfect 4-0 record in singles matches this week including a 2-0 start to Missouri Valley Conference play, freshman Moira Silva was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week Tuesday.
 
The program posted its highest win total – both overall and in league play – since 2007 last year, equaling its highest overall win total since 2006 while capturing its first victory in a league tournament match since the 2006 campaign. Senior Olivia Czerwonka returns after earning Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year honors in 2021-2022, becoming the first Valpo student-athlete in any sport to be named MVC Player of the Year since the University joined the conference in 2017. She also became the first Valpo women's tennis player to be named conference player of the year since 2002.
 
Milwaukee is 19-5 all-time against the Beacons, with a loss in the most recent match between the two teams (L, 4-3 on 3/26/22) snapping what was an impressive 13-match winning streak that dated back to 2008.

LAST WEEK
Milwaukee went 1-0, wrapping up an impressive day of play by completing the sweep of the full match when it hosted Whitewater March 12 at River Glen Elite, winning by a final score of 7-0.
 
The Panthers (6-8) started the day off by winning on all three doubles courts and then finished off the Warhawks (8-3) with victories in all six singles matches, capped by a nice comeback effort by Giorgia Cavestro at No. 6 to close out the afternoon in perfect fashion.
 
The victory improves MKE to 6-2 at home this season and comes against a UWW squad that claimed the WIAC league title in the fall and ranked No. 36 when the spring season began in the ITA Collegiate tennis rankings earlier in the campaign.
 
The Panthers got things going quickly out of the gates, with Nadiia Konieva and Cavestro blitzing Courtney Day and Gianna Nikoleit, 6-0, at No. 2. Babette Burgersdijk and Sara Simonova handily topped Kasey Schlict and Kellie Ha by a final score of 6-3 at No. 1 and Alice Shields and Anouk Ma-Ajong then made it a 3-for-3 showing with a 6-4 victory at No. 3.
 
Singles started in similar dominant form, with Burgersdijk (6-0, 6-2 at No. 1) and Shields (6-1, 6-1 at No. 3) making quick work and Konieva (6-1, 6-3 at No. 2) not far behind to officially clinch the deciding point.
 
SO FAR SO GOOD
The Panthers have six dual wins this season so far and some strong results to build on, including Nadiia Konieva and Giorgia Cavestro being named the Nike #HLTennis Women's Doubles Team of the Week March 8 and Babette Burgersdijk and Sara Simonova being named the Nike #HLTennis Women's Doubles Team of the Week Feb. 15. Overall in the spring dual season, Konieva leads the way with eight individual victories (8-4 record), while Alice Shields has seven (7-3). In doubles, Shields/Iva Stejskalova have six wins (6-2), while Cavestro/Konieva also have six (6-4).  
 
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 11th 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.

HOME SWEET HOME
The Panthers have been stellar at home of late, going 29-13 over the past four-plus years (6-2 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 open April with the start of Horizon League play, hosting Oakland April 2. The match will get underway at 1 p.m. at River Glen Elite.