Last Sunday, the Lawrence University women’s tennis team traveled to Eau Claire, Wisc. to compete against UW-Eau Claire. The women played a tough match, but lost 4-5 to the Blugolds.
The Vikings went 3-3 in singles play. Senior captain Beth Larson defeated UW-Eau Claire’s previously undefeated Taylor Heltne in No. 1 singles play (4-6, 6-0, 10-6). Larson was up 4-1 in the first set and let Heltne back into the game, losing 4-6. She came back on fire in the second set, destroying Heltne 6-0, and carried that energy into the tiebreaker set to win the match.
Christina Schaupp and Hannah Geoffrey were also successful in their No. 4 and No. 5 singles matches, respectively. Schaupp swiftly defeated UW-Eau Claire’s Maddie Johnson 6-1, 7-5. Hannah Geoffrey lost the first set against Renee Nelson 5-7, but fought back for a 7-5 win in the second set and 10-7 victory in the third set to seal the match.
The doubles competition was rough. Lawrence women’s tennis went 1-2 overall, with their only victory at No. 3 doubles. The Geoffrey/Schaupp duo defeated UW-Eau Claire’s Stephanie Wolf and Madison Rossebo 8-5.
This was the tennis team’s first loss of the season, putting their record now at 8-1 overall. Commenting on the outcome of the match, Gayatri Malhotra noted, “It was frustrating because we could have won and were very close the entire day (4-5), but we know what we need to work on for the rest of the season.”
Larson also added that, “Eau Claire has a really good team. The match could have gone either way, but we played them hard and can learn a lot from the loss.”
The Lawrence University women’s tennis team will play three conference matches this week against Ripon College, Carroll University and St. Norbert’s College.