The Milwaukee women's tennis team opens a stretch at home with a pair of matches this weekend, hosting Northern Iowa Saturday and UIC Sunday at River Glen Elite. Start time is scheduled for 1 p.m. for both matches. 

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
Northern Iowa is 4-7-1 this season but playing well of late, posting wins in three of its past four outings including a 5-2 decision over Whitewater in most recent action March 3. The Panthers went 5-14 last year, including a 1-4 mark in league play. The team was picked ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference's preseason poll and is led by Andrijana Brkic, who is 19-5 overall and 6-4 in dual action this school year. Milwaukee is 7-12 all-time against UNI, winning three of the past four. Most recently, Northern Iowa picked up a 4-3 decision a year ago.
 
UIC is 4-5 on the season and had a three-match win streak snapped in its most recent outing, a 5-2 loss at Marquette Feb. 25. The Flames were picked third in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll. UIC reached the Horizon League semifinals a season ago in its final year in the conference and went 15-6 overall. The Flames will look to their returning No. 1 pairing of Agnes Gustafsson and Ana Jover for leadership this season, as the two were the only pairing to win their Horizon League semifinal doubles match a season ago. Jover also completed an undefeated singles season as the No. 3 singles. The Flames built a dynasty as part of its Horizon League run and hold a 38-3 all-time record over the Panthers and have won the past nine.

LAST WEEK
Milwaukee put together a strong performance across the board but came up short against Marquette Feb. 26, falling by a final score of 5-2 at Elite Sports Club - North Shore.

MKE fell at No. 1, but was ahead at No. 3 doubles with Nadiia Konieva and Giorgia Cavestro up, 5-4, when the Golden Eagles earned the team point with a tough 6-4 decision at No. 2. Three of the six singles matches were competitive, back-and-forth thrillers, with two of them going to third sets and another featuring a tie-breaker in the first. Milwaukee did pull out a pair of victories in singles action, but not enough to swing the final scoreline.
 
SO FAR SO GOOD
The Panthers have four dual wins this season so far and some strong results to build on, including 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, Nadiia Konieva leads the way with six individual victories (6-3 record), while Alice Shields has five (5-2). In doubles, two teams have four wins apiece: Burgersdijk/Simonova and Shields/Iva Stejskalova.
 
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 27-12 over the past four-plus years (4-1 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 wrap up the three-match homestand, welcoming Whitewater March 12. Start time is slated for 1 p.m.