In the first of two road stops before taking the weekend off, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee womens tennis team defeated IPFW 4-3 on Thursday.

The Panthers pulled off the victory despite having to default one singles match and one doubles match. The defaults occurred after freshman Ashley Schoneman hurt her wrist during a doubles match. It was especially difficult since the team was up 2-0 in the match.

Thankfully, UWMs other doubles tandems took care of business. The tandem of Kari Kastenholz and Ali ONeal secured a 9-8 win in the No. 2 slot. Their effort was then matched by Traci Litscher and Lauren Fenleys 8-3 victory in No. 3 doubles.

It was a great effort by the team to rally after it didnt look good with the early injury, UWM head coach Matt McCaskill said. But we mustered up the doubles point and then pulled out some key singles matches.

The Panthers (10-7) were led in singles play by Kastenholz and Fenley, who both won three-set matches after trailing early. Freshman Kelly Drvaric dominated at No. 1 singles, with an easy 6-3, 6-0 victory.

Friday afternoon, the Panthers made a Horizon League stop in Detroit. However, unlike IPFW, there was no happy ending to this match.

Playing without Schoneman, the Panthers fell to the Titans, 5-2.

Drvaric was downed by Annie Moore in No. 1 singles, 6-4, 6-2. Kastenholz defeated Aneta Maricevic with a 10-4 final set. The other UWM victory was in No. 5 singles, where Lauren Fenley took her match agaisnt Amy Inman, 4-6, 6-1, 10-4.

Milwaukee returns to action on April 13 and 14, when they take on Cleveland State and Youngstown State, both in Milwaukee, to close out the regular season.

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