The Lawrence University women’s tennis team was dealt their first loss of the season at the hands of the UW-Oshkosh Titans, then dropped three games against state schools last week before ending the losing streak against conference foe Beloit.
Junior Beth Larson was a rock for Lawrence in the match against UW-Oshkosh, taking her fifth consecutive singles match by a score of 6-2, 6-1. Larson and sophomore Jenny Roesch then won their doubles match 8-5, which brought Larson’s overall record to 10-0 for the season.
However, the only other victory for Lawrence came in the number three singles match, where freshman Gayatri Malhotra won 6-4, 6-1. The final score of the match was 6-3 in favor of UW-Oshkosh.
The Vikings’ tough luck continued in their match at UW-Stevens Point the next Wednesday, where they lost to the Pointers 6-3. Larson broke her 10-match winning streak, falling 6-4, 6-4 to UW-Stevens Point freshman Rachel Brown in the number one singles and losing 8-3 with Roesch in the number one doubles.
Lawrence’s three wins came from Roesch and Malhotra in the number two and number three singles and the team of junior Kat Valde and senior Elizabeth Byers in the number three doubles.
Last Friday and Saturday, the domination of Lawrence by the University of Wisconsin system reached its height, with UW-La Crosse and then UW-Whitewater beating the Vikings by identical scores of 8-1.
The only bright spots in the two matches came from the top of the Vikings’ lineup, as Larson scored a 7-6, 6-1 win against UW-La Crosse’s Katie McDonald and the Larson/Roesch team won a tightly-contested 9-7 match against Amy Siemon and Alexandra Bayliss of UW-Whitewater.
In their second match last Saturday, the Vikings returned to conference play and regained their winning ways, easing past Beloit College by a score of 6-3.
Lawrence took care of business in the singles matches, closing out the Buccaneers with five wins in six tries. In the doubles matches, only the team of Larson and Roesch won, but the remaining two matches were unimportant.
As always, Larson led the way at number one singles for the Vikings with an easy 6-0, 6-3 victory. Behind her, Roesch, Malhotra, freshman Carla Schmidt and Valde all won their matches.
On top of the Vikings’ 2-0 start to conference play, Larson was honored last week as the Midwest Conference Player of the Week for women’s tennis.
The team is at Gustavus Adolphus for the ITA Championships this weekend, then returns home Oct. 2 for matches against Monmouth and Knox Colleges.
Women’s tennis stays unbeaten in conference
