The Milwaukee women's tennis team hits the road this weekend for a quite a test, set to travel to the two teams ranked at the top of the Horizon League preseason poll his spring. Following a 1-0 start after topping Oakland, the Panthers will take on Cleveland State Friday afternoon before facing a quick turnaround to battle Youngstown State Saturday morning.
 
The stakes are high, as the Vikings were ranked No. 2 in the league preseason poll, while the Penguins were the No. 1 team as well as defending champions.
 
Action gets underway from the Medical Mutual Tennis Pavilion against CSU Friday at 1 p.m. CST, with live stats available (link available on the MKE website). Just 21 hours later, the matchup against YSU will start at 10 a.m. CST at the YSU Indoor Tennis Center.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Cleveland State returned six letterwinners from last season's Horizon League regular-season championship squad, while the Vikings welcome just one freshman in Ella Franz. The Vikings are under the direction of Frank Polito who is entering his fifth season at the helm and 11th season overall with the program. Last season, the trio of Tereze Vevere, Oihane Vicario and Nethany Yauch all recorded 20-win campaigns, with Yauch entering the year with a team-best 33 career singles wins after playing a shortened freshman season. 
 
CSU is 9-7 on the season overall, but did drop its conference opener to Youngstown by a score of 5-2. Vevere (19-10 in singles) and Yauch (15-13) lead the way this season.
 
Milwaukee is 16-22 all-time against the Vikings, with a 4-1 upset in the league tournament a year ago the most recent meeting. The Panthers have won three of the past four to snap what was a recent stretch of dominance for Cleveland State in the series, including a 14-match win streak that spanned 2004-14.
 
Youngstown State finished 2022 with an overall record of 13-10, including a 5-1 mark in league play before winning the Horizon League Championship against the Panthers. The team was tabbed No. 1 in the preseason poll and did return its entire lineup from a year ago. Mickael Sopel is in his 10th season as head coach and has completely turned the program around. The Penguins have won six league postseason titles, appeared in six NCAA Championships and have reached the conference postseason title match seven times in the eight years it has been contested since his arrival at YSU.
 
The team is 4-8 overall this spring but does have that 1-0 start to league play with a big 5-2 win over Cleveland State. Cecilia Rosas (14-11 in singles) is the team leader in victories so far.
 
YSU holds a commanding 19-8 lead in the all-time series and has had the Panthers number of late. They have won the past five as well as 10 of the past 11, with a 5-2 win in March of 2019 the lone MKE victory in that span.
 
HORIZON HISTORY
Milwaukee is now 14-16 in Horizon League openers all-time after topping Oakland 4-3, with a 6-1 win over IUPUI a year ago snapping what had been a three-match losing streak in conference openers. The team went 3-3 a year ago to finish in third place. The Panthers have claimed one regular-season Horizon League Championship in program history which came in 2013-14, going 7-1 that spring.

LAST WEEK
Led by a pair of impressive comeback victories in singles play, the Milwaukee women's tennis team captured a remarkable 4-3 victory over Oakland despite dropping the doubles point to open the match Sunday at River Glen Elite.
 
The Panthers (7-9, 1-0 Horizon League) got the Horizon League season off and running with a thriller, topping the Golden Grizzlies (4-10, 0-2 Horizon League) with a victory in the final singles match of the day when Iva Stejskalova rallied from way behind in the third set to win the tiebreaker in dominating fashion.
 
Stejskalova trailed, 5-2, in the third before putting together a ferocious rally. After tying things at 5-5, she trailed again at 6-5 before breaking Emma Hultqvist back to force a tiebreak. After a back-and-forth start, Stejskalova put her foot on the gas and won 7-2 to pick up the clinching 6-1, 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-2) decision, with her teammates rushing the court to celebrate.
 
None of that would have possible without a second similar comeback. After taking the opening set at No. 5 singles, 7-5, Sara Simonova found herself trailing by that same 5-2 scoreline before reversing course and recording a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Tegan Heaton to give MKE the 3-2 advantage at the time.
 
SO FAR SO GOOD
The Panthers have seven 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 10 individual victories (10-4 record), while Alice Shields has eight (8-3). In doubles, Shields/Iva Stejskalova lead the squad with seven wins (7-3), while Cavestro/Konieva (7-5) also have seven.
 
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 30-13 over the past four-plus years (7-2 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 return home to host Chicago State next Saturday. Match time against the Cougars is set for 1 p.m.