[
PDF Preview]
[
Championship Page]
RIPON, Wis. – The 2012 Midwest Conference Women’s Tennis Championship kicks off Friday, October 12 with the team championship at the Boylan Tennis Center and Forest City Tennis Club in Rockford, Ill. before play shifts to the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wis. on Saturday and Sunday for the singles and doubles championships.
In the team championship on Friday three of the four teams return from a year ago as 2011 MWC Champion Grinnell (8-3, 4-1) will take on MWC North Division winner Carroll (11-2, 4-0) at 8:30 a.m. at Forest City Tennis Club. At Boylan Tennis Center MWC South Division winner Lake Forest (11-2, 5-0) squares off against St. Norbert (6-8, 3-1) also at 8:30 a.m. The winners of the semifinal matches will play for the MWC Championship at Boylan Tennis Center at 1:30 p.m. Earlier this season Carroll lost a 6-3 decision to Grinnell on September 15 while Lake Forest also won by a 6-3 margin over St. Norbert on August 31.
On Saturday the three doubles champions will be crowned when play starts in Madison while the six singles champions will be crowned on Sunday.
Beloit enters the 2012 championships with the second most individual medalists in MWC history with 44 and looks for its first individual champion since the 2009 season when Erika Zevin won the No. 2 Singles title. Trina Capelli owns a 9-4 overall record winning seven of those matches in the No. 1 flight. Libby Storrick will play out of the No. 3 flight after earning six of her eight wins during the regular season and Emma Beck returns to play out of the No. 4 flight with a 5-5 record, including a 3-1 mark in conference play. Capelli and Storrick team up out of the No. 1 doubles flight for a 4-3 record while teammates Maria Mears and Beck pair up for a team-best six wins out of the No. 2 doubles flight.
Carroll earned a trip to the team championship after going 4-0 in MWC North Division play and co-led the league with 11 overall victories. Abigail Pellot enters the championships as one of the best players in the tournament with a perfect dual record and a near-perfect 14-1 overall record. Pellet looks to be the first Pioneer to capture a title in the No. 1 singles flight for the first time in school history after her 12-0 dual mark. Julia Patzin is nearly as good with an 11-1 overall record and was perfect in nine dual matches in the No. 5 flight while Alyssa Larson is 11-4 overall including nine wins in the No. 3 flight. Larson and Pellot combine for the second most wins (eight) in the No. 1 flight with the duo of Kate Rasmussen and Megan Rosenberg are 9-2 out of the No. 2 doubles flight which ranks second in the league in that flight.
Cornell will participate in the championship weekend for the first time since the 1997 season and will play for its first individual champion since the 1995 season. Kara Middleton finished the season with a team-best 12 wins mainly playing out of the No. 4 flight where she posted an 8-2 record. Alyssa Zavislak is 9-4 overall spread over three different flights with Samantha De Gannes entering the championships with seven overall wins. De Gannes and Middleton solidify the doubles teams with an 8-2 record in the No. 2 flight while Ariana Hudson and Zavislak earning seven wins in the No. 1 doubles flight in dual matches.
Grinnell won its eighth championship in 2011 and aims for its eighth championship in the last nine years in 2012 after a second place finish in the MWC South Division. The Pioneers also won four singles and two doubles championships last season and looks to add on to its conference-best 58 medals. The Pioneers welcome back three individual champions in Constanza Alarcon, Shirlene Luk and Hanna Feldman. Alarcon won the No. 2 singles flight in both 2010 and 2011 has been limited to only a 5-1 overall mark this season. Feldman is a two-time champion in the No. 5 flight and has picked up wins in four different flights this season on her way to a 9-3 overall record. Luk was a champion in the No. 3 flight and finished the season with a 4-0 mark in the No. 2 flight. Laura Krull is coming off a championship in the ITA Regionals and will challenge in the No. 1 flight after a 4-1 dual record and a perfect 6-0 tournament mark. Luk and Clothilde Thirouin move up to the No. 1 doubles flight after a No. 2 flight championship last season and have a 8-1 dual record with the team of Catherine Fitch and Krull playing out of the No. 2 flight with a 4-0 dual record.
Illinois Col. is looking for its first singles or doubles champion in school history and will challenge for titles in both in 2012. Tamar Norville will play out of the No. 1 flight where she has five wins this season and paired with Kavita Patel holds a 4-6 record in the No. 1 doubles flight. Audrey Brauer is 5-4 in the No. 5 singles flight with teammate Zippy Abdulmalik winning five matches in the No. 3 flight. Along with Norville and Patel the Lady Blues will rely on Abdulmalik and Brauer in doubles action after a regular season where they teamed up for a 4-6 record in the No. 2 doubles flight.
Knox improved one place in 2011 to finish sixth and aims to crown an individual champion for the first time since the 2000 season when Liz Ferry captured a No. 3 singles championship. Charlotte Garvin and Emily Tyl each have six overall wins on the season with Tyl checking in at 4-2 in the No. 2 flight while Garvin has two wins in the No. 1 flight and four more in the No. 2 flight. Dana Pierce has played out of the No. 1 flight all season and captured a 5-5 mark while Sarah Bolitho and Emiley Brand have combined for eight wins out of the No. 5 and No. 6 flights, respectively. Garvin and Pierce teamed up for four wins in the No. 1 doubles flight and Bolitho and Brand accounted for three wins in the No. 3 doubles flight.
Lake Forest enters the team tournament after earning a perfect 5-0 record in MWC South Division play and also had an 11-2 overall record this season. Two-time No. 1 singles champion Melika Celebic once again will play out of that flight for Lake Forest after going 9-3 during the regular season. Christi Valicenti will play in the No. 2 flight after holding a team-best 11 wins and finishing second among all MWC individual players with a 11-1 overall mark. Grace Dowling finished the season with a 10-2 record over the No. 3 (5-2) and No. 4 (4-0) flights while Aimee Fadden returns after a 6-3 record between the No. 4 and 5 flights. The tandem of Dowling and Gracie Mullins were one of the best out of the No. 3 doubles flight going 8-0 during the regular season (best in MWC) while the No. 1 doubles flight duo of Celebic and Valicenti finished with a 9-3 mark that was second best in the league.
The Vikings return a 2011 champion as Christina Schaupp captured a title in the No. 4 singles flight last season and this year has posted three wins out of the No. 2 flight. Hannah Geoffrey is 4-1 in the No. 4 flight while teammate Polly Dalton was a perfect 5-0 in the No. 6 flight with seven overall wins. Gayatri Malhotra will compete for a championship with a team-best 10-2 overall mark including a 6-0 record in the No. 3 flight. Geoffrey and Ali Heiring pair up for a formidable pair in the No.1 flight with an 8-3 overall record while the team of Dalton and Malhotra are 8-4 overall and 5-3 in the No. 2 flight.
Monmouth is in search of its first individual champion since the 2008 season when Amy Unzicker won gold in the No. 2 singles flight as the Fighting Scots head into the 2012 championships. Julianna Graf has four overall wins to headline the Fighting Scots with three of those wins coming in dual competitions out of the No. 2 flight. Amanda Buck has a pair of wins overall with Haylee Gustafson earning a win in the No. 4 flight. Graf pairs with Kristen Huffman in the No. 1 doubles flight where they have a pair of wins this season and the Fighting Scots will also have Mitchell and Christine Peterson in the No. 3 flight to compete for a championship.
Ripon ranks third in league history with 43 combined singles and doubles champions but hasn’t had a winner since the 2003 season when Natalie Schnick won a title in the No. 5 singles flight. Elizabeth Ake has played out of the No. 3 and 4 flights and earned a 4-6 overall record including going 3-4 in the No. 3 flight. Alison Thies earned a pair of wins in each of the No. 5 and 6 flights while Brittany Sullivan will play out of the No. 1 flight with three wins on the season. Thies and Olivia Wetzel have three wins in the No. 2 doubles flight and the team of Ake and Katie Majerowski has a 3-2 record in the No. 3 flight.
St. Norbert earned a trip to the team championship by defeating Lawrence and will play for their first team championship since the 2009 season. The Green Knights were 3-1 in North Division play and had six wins overall. Maria Slusarek leads the Green Knights with nine wins and played her way to an 8-6 record in dual matches in the No. 3 flight. Brittany Dudzik was 9-4 in the No. 6 flight while Maggie Berens earned six wins in the No. 5 flight and Nancy Chybowski had six wins in the No. 1 flight. Chybowski and Slusarek pair up in the No. 1 doubles flight for a 7-6 dual match record while the team of Berens and Ariel Bloniarz have combined for a 7-4 overall mark which includes a 3-0 record in the No. 2 flight and a 4-4 mark in the No. 3 flight.