If you have been reading The Post regularly, then you will have noticed a great deal of editorial space dedicated to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women’s tennis team. Besides that the UWM Post strives to report all the sports news happening in your world, the women’s tennis team has been making it hard to not talk about them. First off, Milwaukee had two solid performances last week as two doubles tandems went to the finals at Ball State. Secondly, and perhaps most amazing, is that our top singles player with seven wins in Jenna Flescher, a freshman. Another shocker is that our No. 3 and No. 4 players are Sammi Schoen and Martina Schnapp, also freshmen, with five wins. As if that wasn’t enough, the Panthers’ No. 1 doubles tandem is the 4 win pair of Schoen and Schnapp. Clearly, these three ladies have earned a little recognition.

UWM Post: I guess the best place to start is to ask where you come from and why you started playing tennis.

Martina Schnapp: I was born in Europe and as far as tennis goes I didn’t really get forced to do it, and I really liked tennis so I just stuck with it.

Jenna Flescher: I was born in Milwaukee and I really don’t know why I play tennis.

Sammi Schoen: I was born in Wauwatosa and my mom signed me up for lessons and I played a lot of sports and it stuck so I play now I guess (laughs).

Post: How pleased are you with your play this year so far?

JF: I’m pretty pleased (laughs).

SS: Yeah we’ve all been playing really well this year.

Post: So how do you like playing at college?

MS: It’s something new and I mean its college.

SS: Yeah it’s a lot different from high school and we don’t know any of the players we’re playing.

MS: Yeah it’s a lot of team work.

Post: How close are you all as a team?

JF: I think we’re all pretty close

MS: Yeah it’s a great group

Post: Now since you three are all freshman, and your team is pretty young to begin with, there must be a leader on the team.

JF: Traci (Litscher) looks to others, laughs

SS: Traci laughs

MS: Traci laughs

Post: I’m terrified to ask with all the laughing, but I’m going to have to ask why.

MS: Well she’s the oldest and she knows everything.

JF: Yeah she has a great attitude and she just loves tennis.

SS: She has just so much energy and she’s so much fun.

Post: What were some of the challenges going from high school tennis to college tennis? Martina the last time I talked to you, you mentioned that the cold shocked you at first.

MS: Yeah it did. I went to high school in Florida so the cold was a little weird.

Post: What about you two? Obviously cold isn’t a problem.

JF: No, weather isn’t really a problem. We have to play doubles in college and in high school I didn’t play doubles at all

SS: Yeah and we play matches a lot more than we did in high school.

Post: Where did you all go to high school?

SS: Brookfield Central

MS: American Heritage

JF: Arrowhead

Post: Now I’ve asked all the tennis people that I’ve talked to this question, so I’m going to ask you. End of the year, where are you?

MS: We hope to do better every year. I mean we always hope to win it all.

JF: I’m not even sure where we were last year (laughs).

Post: Last year the team was in 5th place.

SS: So 4th place! (laughs)

Post: Alright, last question. What do you think about McCaskill?

JF: He’s great. Yeah we like him.

MS: Yeah we are really close.

SS: He’s really into our conversations and he really cares about the team.

MS: Yeah you just know that he cares a lot about us and how we are all doing.

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