Off to a strong start to the 2024 season, the Milwaukee women's tennis team will jump into a very busy week of home matches – playing three times in a span of four days at River Glen Elite, starting with a city rivalry matchup with Marquette Wednesday.
 
The Panthers and Golden Eagles get underway Wednesday at noon. Following a day off, Milwaukee heads into the weekend by hosting Eastern Illinois Friday and wraps up the busy stretch by welcoming SIUE Saturday. That Panther/Panther clash is set to start at 2 p.m. Friday, while the homestand wraps up Saturday with a 1 p.m. start time.
 
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
Milwaukee and Marquette have been meeting regularly for much of the past two decades, with the Golden Eagles still unbeaten in the series. The recent matchups have been close, however, with MKE dropping a 5-2 decision in 2023 before getting edged, 4-3, in 2022. Marquette is off to an 0-6 start this season (they went 9-13 last year) and was most recently defeated by Wisconsin (7-0 Feb. 9) and Northern Illinois (6-1 Feb. 2). The 2023-24 campaign will mark the 14th at Marquette for Jud Shaufler overall, who is currently serving as the Director of Tennis on an interim basis after working as an assistant coach with the men's program. Emilijia Kojcic leads singles play with six wins; three different players lead the way in doubles victories with eight apiece.
 
Eastern Illinois is 0-4 this season and will take on Saint Louis Wednesday before heading to Milwaukee Friday. In most recent action, the Panthers dropped a 7-0 decision at Cincinnati Feb. 2. Robin Cambier is the new director of men's and women's tennis at EIU and takes over a team that went 13-11 a season ago. Eastern leads the all-time series 6-3, but Milwaukee has won the past three, including a 5-2 decision a year ago.
 
SIUE is off to an unblemished 3-0 start after defeating Illinois Springfield (7-0 Jan. 21), Valparaiso (4-1 Jan. 27), and Bradley (6-1 Feb. 10). Adam Albertsen begins his sixth season as the head coach for SIUE tennis after being named the program's 10th coach in June 2018. The OVC Coach of the Year in 2023, Albertsen led a program that has increased its win total in each of his first five seasons, going 17-5 in 2023 and advancing to the OVC Championship match. Four SIUE women's tennis players were selected as All-Ohio Valley Conference honorees last year, with Jill Lambrechts and Jordan Schifano named first team All-OVC. Lambrechts is off to an impressive 11-2 start in singles this season, while Amelia Gorman leads the way at 12-2. In doubles, three different players have double-figure victories, led by 11 from Gorman (11-2). The two teams have met just once all-time in the series and it happened recently – a 5-2 win by the Cougars in 2022.
 
IT'S A SWEEP
The Panthers swept the Horizon League Under Armour Player of the Week awards Feb. 7, when Sara Simonova was named the Horizon League Singles Player of the Week, while Simonova and Babette Burgersdijk partnered up to be selected as the Horizon League Doubles Team of the Week.
 
Simonova went 2-0 on the week and is the first MKE player to earn the league singles honor since Mayya Perova in March of 2022. In sweeping the awards with Burgersdijk (the duo also went 2-0 against North Dakota and Bradley), it marked the first time MKE tennis has accomplished that league feat of all three accolades at once since February of 2021 when Greta Carbone (singles) and Mayya Perova/Nikki Milner (doubles) were honored.
 
NEW LEADERSHIP AT THE TOP 
Hopes remain high this spring for the Panthers and first-year head coach Mark Goldin after the team reached the Horizon League Tournament semifinals. That followed a trip to the league championship match the year prior. A year ago, the squad was knocked out by top-seeded Youngstown State, coming up just short of a return trip to the title match.
 
Goldin is a fixture in the Milwaukee tennis community and was named the head coach of the Panthers in August, 2023, following a very successful run as the head coach at Cardinal Stritch University and, most recently, as the assistant general manager at Elite Sports Club in Mequon.

His tenure at Cardinal Stritch from 2013 to 2021 was impressive, earning the Wilson ITA Women's NAIA National Coach of the Year Award in 2014 in addition to four East Region Wilson ITA Coach of the Year accolades and Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors on eight different occasions (4 women's/4 men's).
 
Goldin guided the Wolves to a 64-1 overall CCAC conference record over his first eight seasons on the women's side after founding the program, eight CCAC Conference championship titles, and a team ranking as high as No. 4 in the nation. On the men's side, the team went 61-4 in CCAC play, claiming seven league titles as well as a national ranking as high as No. 2 in back-to-back seasons. His teams also received the highest team GPA awards from the department numerous times, including winning the award on each side his final semester.
 
No stranger to the Panthers, Goldin served as an assistant with the program from 2009 through 2012, helping the team improve from near the bottom of the league standings to a Top-3 program in his time. In fact, MKE went from five team wins, 39 individual wins and a 2-6 conference record in his first year to 13 team wins, 126 individual wins and a 6-2 Horizon League record for third place, the best in school history at the time.
  
ROSTER MAKEUP
The current roster comes from an extensive background of seven different countries and will consist of five returners, a transfer to the program, and two freshmen. Leading the way for the returners in Nadiia Konieva, who was named All-Horizon League First Team as well as the Horizon League Freshmen of the Year following an outstanding first season with the Panthers (just fourth MKE tennis player to earn Freshman of the Year honors in program history). She finished the season with an overall record of 20-14 in singles play and 18-14 in doubles action. Konieva played singles from No. 2 to No. 4 position and recorded 20 singles victories, the first Panther to achieve the 20-plus milestone since 2017.
 
FALL FESTIVITES
This fall, Milwaukee competed in three different tournaments, visiting Michigan and for a pair of trips in addition to an event in-state. Konieva led the way in singles with a 5-1 mark, with newcomer Laure Razet joining her for the team lead with a 5-2 ledger. Freshman Evelina Anastasi was next at 4-2. In doubles, the team of Konieva and Razet paced the Panthers at an impressive 4-1.
 
Milwaukee has been picked to finish fourth in the league this season in a poll of the league's coaches, despite very strong finishes to their campaign each of the past two years. The Panthers finished 2-4 last spring and went into the Horizon League Tournament as the No. 5 seed, knocking off No. 4 Northern Kentucky, 4-0, before falling to Youngstown State in the semifinals.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
The Panthers have been stellar at home of late, going 25-11 over the past four-plus years, including a 10-3 mark in 2021. Last season, MKE claimed victories in three of its final four home duals heading into the postseason and were 8-4 overall. The team is already off to a 2-0 opening at River Glen Elite to 2023-24.
 
UP NEXT
The team remains at home to take on Gustavus Adolphus next Saturday, set to get underway at 1 p.m.