The UChicago men’s team stayed home this weekend to take on two ranked opponents while the women’s squad traveled to Milwaukee for its second match of the season. On Friday, the Maroons hosted the No. 10 Kenyon College Lords and on Saturday they turned around and took on the No. 26 UW–Whitewater Warhawks. The squad came out swinging and won 6–3 over the Lords, giving the Maroons a 4–0 record, while putting Kenyon down to 1–1 on the season. The men went on to beat the Warhawks 8–1, extending the Maroons’ record to 5–0. The women took a tough loss to a Division I team, UW–Milwaukee. They lost at a margin of 6–1 for their first loss of the season.
The men’s side traveled to the nearby indoor tennis facility XS Tennis located in the South Side to face Kenyon, which hails from Gambier, OH. In singles play the two teams split the six matches evenly and came to a 3–3 draw. The Maroons earned wins from their second, fourth, and sixth spots. At the second spot third-year Sven Kranz won 7–6 (8–6), 6–1 after a tightly contested first set. First-year Charlie Pei found victory easily at 6–0, 6–1, as did second-year David Liu who won 6–3, 6–1.
Doubles play is what truly won the matchup for the Maroons. They were able to sweep the Lords in all three match-ups.
“It was a great weekend at home to beat two very tough opponents. We came out in both matches with a lot of energy and it showed in our doubles and carried into our singles. The next two weeks of practice will be extremely important as we prepare for the National Indoor Championships,” fourth-year Gordon Zhang said.
On Saturday, the men were able to continue their hot streak, taking down No. 26 UW–Whitewater by a landslide 8–1. The only loss came at the No. 1 doubles match, but after that, the squad dominated the Warhawks. Only two of the seven matches the South Siders won went more than two sets, and the lone drop was hotly contested.
This posits the men’s team as currently undefeated, and they have also won 26 of 30 singles matches so far this season. Since less than half of the squad are upperclassmen, this is certainly promising for the very young squad.
On the other hand, the women struggled against their DI opponents when they traveled to Wisconsin for the weekend. They were swept in doubles and only had one win in singles play. The win came from fourth-year Lucy Tang at the fifth spot who won 7–6 (7–4), 6–2 after a closely contested first set.
Rachel Kim, a first-year on the team, said, “Even though we did not win this weekend, we played our best and brought great energy against a tough team.”
The next matchup for the women comes against another DI opponent, Georgetown, on Friday, February 19 at 2 p.m., followed by No. 38 Kalamazoo on Saturday, February 20 at 11 a.m. Both matches are at XS Tennis, where the women will look to bounce back after this tough loss. The men’s next matchups are at the ITA DIII National Team Indoor Championship in Pepper Pike, OH this February 19–21.
