Women’s Tennis competes at conference championships

Mackenzie Dwyer

Lawrence’s women’s tennis team traveled to Madison this weekend to battle it out in the Midwest Conference Singles/Doubles Championship at Nielsen Tennis Stadium. 

For the singles competition, sophomore Hannah Geoffrey and sophomore Melissa Heeren advanced the furthest for the Vikings, both traveling to the semifinals in their flights.

Geoffrey competed as Lawrence’s number 3 singles player, defeating Cornell’s Samantha De Gannes in a three set match. She lost the first set 1-6 and claimed the next two with the third set ending in a 10-8 tie break. Geoffrey moved through the quarterfinals, defeating Lake Forest’s Grace Dowling in two sets 6-2, 6-4. Geoffrey fell to Grinnell’s Constanza Alacron in the semifinals, who later went on to win the singles flight 3 finals. Heeren competed as Lawrence’s number 6 player for the MWC championships. Heeren moved through the first round by defeating Knox player Emiley Brand 6-0, 6-1. She then topped Emily Rabin from Lake Forest 6-4,6-2 to take the quarterfinals, but fell in the semifinals to Grinnell’s Julia Rumley who was the eventual champion of the number 6 singles.

In the doubles competition, Lawrence’s number 3 doubles sophomores Christina Schaupp and Tess Vogel advanced the furthest for the Vikings, making it to the semifinals. The women topped Cornell’s Claudia Landsman and Phoebe Milner in two sets 7-5, 6-1. The two then fell in the semifinals to Carroll’s number 3 doubles in three sets. The first set was lost 7-6 with a 7-4 tie break, but the duo came back to take the second set 2-6, only to fall 6-4 in the third set to solidify the Carroll win. Lawrence’s number 2 doubles juniors Polly Dalton and Gayatri Malhotra defeated a Ripon duo 6-1, 6-2, but fell to Cornell’s De Gannes and Kara Middleton in three sets. The women took the first set 2-6, but lost 6-3 and 6-4 in the following two sets. The Viking number one doubles pair of freshman Ali Heiring and Geoffrey did not advance past their first-round match.

Lawrence has placed third for their fall season in the North division, after Carroll and St. Norbert. The team came out 2-2 for conference and 8-6 overall, concluding their fall season.