Off to a 3-1 start, the Milwaukee women's tennis team continues the season with a trip to UIC, making the short drive down to Chicago to take on the Flames Friday morning.
 
The Panthers have won three in a row and are in search of just the second 4-1 start to a season since 1996-97 (the team also opened 4-1 in the 2020-21 campaign).
 
The match against the Flames will get underway at 10 a.m. at XS Tennis Village, the primary home of UIC tennis. It is located south of the campus at 5336 S. State Street, Chicago, Ill., 60609.

The Panthers improved to that 3-1 mark last week with a pair of wins, topping North Dakota, 4-3, and Bradley, 5-2, in the first two home matches of the season. Sara Simonova and Nadiia Konieva led the way with a pair of singles victories overall and the doubles teams claimed the decision and point each match.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Milwaukee and UIC have continued the all-time series every year since the Flames left the Horizon League and it leans very heavily to UIC's favor. The Flames were a dynasty when in the Horizon, claiming the league title every year from 1997 through 2013 as well as 19 times overall. In fact, at one point, the Flames put together a regular-season winning streak against league foes that reached 146 consecutive matches. Milwaukee has dropped the past 10 in the series, last claiming a victory with a 4-3 decision back in 2014. A year ago, the Flames came out on top, 6-1.
 
Elizabeth Lumpkin Robinson was named UIC's women's tennis head coach in November 2023 and has the team off to a 1-2 start this season. The Flames have beaten Bowling Green (5-2 Feb. 3) and dropped matches to Butler (4-3 Jan. 30) and, most recently, to Toledo (6-1 Feb. 4). Agnes Gustafsson and Mayu Ushio lead the way in singles play (2-1), while four different players have posted 2-1 doubles ledgers.
 
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 is back home again next week for a pair of matches, starting with a battle with Marquette Wednesday that will get underway at 12 noon.