MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee women's tennis team had a tough time dealing with a St. Thomas squad on a roll Saturday afternoon, falling by a final score of 4-1 at River Glen Elite.
 
The Panthers (4-5) put together some solid individual outings, but it was not enough against a Tommies (4-2) squad that won for the third time in the past two days on its weekend road trip.
 
The visitors overcame some early MKE rallies to earn the doubles point, taking the key momentum into singles action.
 
"It definitely gave them momentum going into singles and gave them some confidence," head coach Mark Goldin said. "St. Thomas definitely played some good tennis today and are coming off their third match in two days here in Milwaukee [they also beat Bradley and Marquette]. They were in rhythm, were confident, and earned everything."
 
Honoka Yamashita quickly leveled the match, picking up a point after rolling past Ingrid Forsberg 6-1, 6-1 at No. 6.
 
From there it was a battle. St. Thomas won close contests at No. 1 and No. 5 to get to 3-1 and then finished things off with a 7-5, 6-3 victory at No. 2.
 
Emilia Durska just missed out on giving the team a second point, well ahead of Jannah Elnemr 7-6 (7-1), 5-3, when the match was halted upon the clinching point being completed.
 
"It wasn't a matter of effort on our side," Goldin said. "I felt like they played as hard as they could for each other, for the fans watching, for me … and I am proud of them for that. We still have eight matches before league play begins and 14 before the league tournament. So I think that the biggest thing is that if we can get everyone healthy and everyone clicking on the dame day, we can become really dangerous. And we are getting really close to it."
 
Up next, the team closes out the busy weekend with a short drive down to Illinois to take on Northwestern. The match against the Wildcats is set to get underway at 4 p.m. and will have a live video stream provided by nusports.com.
 
St. Thomas 4, Milwaukee 1
Singles competition
1. Marthe Degeorges (UST) def. Nadiia Konieva (MKE) 6-4, 6-2
2. Anna Sidorenko (UST) def. Nikola Nikolajeva (MKE) 7-5, 6-3
3. Laure Razet (MKE) vs. Caroline Lindahl (UST) 6-7 (7-9), 0-5, unfinished
4. Emilia Durska (MKE) vs. Jannah Elnemr (UST) 7-6 (7-1), 5-3, unfinished
5. Lily Olson (UST) def. Elisa Rubio (MKE) 7-5, 6-2
6. Honoka Yamashita (MKE) def. Ingrid Forsberg (UST) 6-1, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. Marthe Degeorges/Regina Talvera (UST) def. Nadiia Konieva/Nikola Nikolajeva (MKE) 6-2
2. Emilia Durska/Laure Razet (MKE) vs. Schrichandrakala Ten/Lily Olson (UST) 4-4, unfinished
3. Caroline Lindahl/Ingrid Forsberg (UST) def. Giorgia Cavestro/Elisa Rubio (MKE) 6-3