The Milwaukee women's tennis team will play for the first time in 2025 this weekend, hitting the road for the season opener Saturday before coming right back home to host a match as well. The Panthers open the spring slate Saturday at Bradley before the quick turnaround to host Providence Sunday morning.
 
Saturday's matchup against the Braves starts at 11 a.m. from Parkside Fitness, located in Pekin, Ill. The next day the Panthers and Friars are set to get the home opener underway at River Glen Elite starting at 10 a.m.
 
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.
 
Expectations for the new season are high for the Panthers and second-year head coach Mark Goldin. The Panthers went 9-12 overall last season, finishing the year as the No. 4 seed (3-3 record) for the Horizon League Tournament before suffering a heartbreaking defeat in the opening round. The team was selected third in the 2025 Horizon League preseason poll.
 
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 as the assistant general manager at Elite Sports Club in Mequon.

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.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Saturday's match will be the 21^st all-time between the two programs, with Milwaukee holding the slim 11-9 advantage. A year ago was the first meeting in four seasons, with a 5-2 MKE victory snapping what was a four-game win streak by Bradley (from 2015 to 2020). That preceded a lengthy win streak by the Panthers of eight in a row from 2007 through 2014.
 
A year ago, Bradley finished 8-16 overall, which included a 1-6 ledger in Missouri Valley Conference play. Matt Tyler, in his 12^th season as the head coach, looks to Andra Sirbu to lead the team this season. Joining the team from the United Arab Emirates, Sirbu put together a strong freshman season a year ago, earning a spot on the All-MVC Second Team after going 13-7 overall in singles, including 6-2 in league matchups. Saturday marks the season opener for BU as well as Milwaukee.
 
Milwaukee and Providence will be playing for the first time in nearly 30 years, last competing back in March of 1996. The Friars claimed a 6-0 win that day and lead the all-time series by a count of 2-0 (also an 8-1 win in March of 1994). Orsi Golovics starts her fourth season with the program and is coming off a 5-14 campaign a year ago, which included an 0-3 mark in Big East play. The team does open the season with a match against Marquette Saturday.
 
ROSTER MAKEUP
The current roster comes from an extensive background of seven different countries and will consist of five returners and three freshmen. Leading the way for the returners is Nadiia Konieva, who finished last season with a singles record of 17-9 and a doubles ledger of 17-8. Her 17 wins led the team in singles play and her 17 doubles victories finished second on the squad and just one off the lead, playing primarily at No. 2. That followed All-Horizon League First Team honors as well as the Horizon League Freshmen of the Year accolades following an outstanding first season with the Panthers.
 
FALL FESTIVITES
This fall, Milwaukee competed in three different tournaments, visiting Minnesota, Illinois, and Ohio. Emilia Durska (5-2) and freshman Nikola Nikolajeva (5-3) led the way in singles with five victories apiece. In doubles play, Nadiia Konieva and Nikolajeva teamed up at No. 1 the entire schedule and paced the Panthers with a 7-3 record.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
The Panthers have been stellar at home of late, going 29-13 over the past four-plus years, including a 10-3 mark in 2021.
 
UP NEXT
The Panthers will take on a pair of in-state rivals to jump headfirst into the 2025 campaign, traveling to battle Wisconsin Friday and then Arquette on Sunday. The team will also play Northern Illinois when in Madison Friday, with that first match set to start at 9 a.m. at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.