Six different Muskies won in either singles or doubles, but the Lakeland women’s tennis team lost two matches by 6-3 scores Sept. 10 in Chicago.
In the first match against Aurora, senior Nicole Shavlik won 7-5, 6-0 at No. 1 singles and sophomore Brittany Jurek won 6-4, 6-0 at No. 4. Jurek teamed up with sophomore Jenna Oberthaler at No. 2 doubles for an 8-4 victory.
Lakeland Women’s Tennis Coach Casey Carr, in his first season at the helm of the women’s program after a year with the men’s team, talked about Shavlik and Jurek.
“Nicole’s the leader of our team. Everybody looks up to her, her being the senior captain of the team, very motivated, very talented, and the person who keeps everybody loose. This year I want her to play in matches as freely as she does in practice. I think once she does, she’ll be one of the toughest players to beat in the conference.
“Brittany has to understand that this is her first year playing. She has the skills and the athleticism and just needs more match experience,” Carr said.
Junior No. 2 April Schimitz and senior No. 5 Catie Campion both took their opponents to three sets but lost 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 and 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, respectively.
Against Benedictine, Schmitz came back from a set down to win a tiebreak match 6-7, 6-4, 12-8. Schmitz and Shavlik won 8-3 at No. 1 doubles and Campion and sophomore Stephanie Rebek won 9-7 at No. 3 doubles.
“April’s playing some awesome tennis. I think the tiebreaker she won will give her confidence and that’s all she needs to start playing even better,” Carr said.
Carr, who’s been holding additional individual practices with his players in addition to team practices, said he’s pleased with all the hard work his team has put in so far this season and is optimistic about their chances because of it.
“We were predicted to finish eleventh in the conference and right now we’re 1-3, but we could easily be 3-1,” he said. “We’re not going to win all our matches but we’re going to be competitive and improve every week, and right now we don’t look like the eleventh seed in conference.”