After a couple of  tough losses to Cornell College and Buena Vista University, the women’s tennis players are looking to rebound and hit the courts with even more fire in their bellies.

The Iowa Conference Tournament is rapidly approaching and the team is preparing for a tournament to remember.

“I hope to see Alejandra Ruales push into the A bracket for singles, where she will see lots of good competition that she would like to face again and get the best of this time around,” said Coach Karl Stubben. “I also think that Caroline Rainey and Estherjoy Mungai have a very solid chance of getting a good doubles draw.”

With a very inexperienced team consisting of three juniors, two seniors, and four sophomores and first-years combined, things look very bright even beyond this season. Not looking too far ahead, there have been a few positives that the team has been proud of, especially the play of Mungai and Carley Melano.

“Carley Melano and Estherjoy Mungai have been pleasant surprises throughout the year,” said Stubben. “Estherjoy has played strong and consistently all year. Both will do well here in the near future.”

Mungai has had the greatest success for the team finishing the season on a four game winning streak. The team finished the season with a 1-8 record overall.

Statistically, singles matches finished the season with an overall of 14-65, while doubles collected five wins throughout 37 matches.

Even with this young team, they hope to put a good string of matches together this weekend at the Iowa Conference Team Tournament.

“With multiple returners, we will have a good team who will work extremely hard,” said Stubben. “It will hurt losing Alejandra because she has been a great player and leader for this team, but after a year or so we hope that someone else will also step up into that leadership position.”

One thing that could affect the team is the resurfacing of the courts in Graber. This improvement to the facilities that the team uses makes for a very useful external motivation for the team. With new facilities the team will be inclined to play even more.

“With the resurfacing of Graber we look for the team to be even more active during the off-season as well as in-season,” said Stubben. “We haven’t had that kind of motivation for some time now.”

Hopefully the team will find a way to finish their season with a positive mark throughout the team and individual tournaments. The future is never written in stone, and they look to be the handlers of the pen that tells their tale.

The women’s tennis team has a few fresh faces — and just one senior — so it was important for the athletes to get a few matches under their built, followed by some more practice time to continue developing their game.

This past weekend, the team had a quick turn-around with a doubleheader on Saturday and another match on Sunday.

The Duhawks played a tough stretch of three conference opponents: Simpson, Central, and Coe College, losing all three of the matches, but junior Rachel Weglarz still sees the team progressing even if it does not translate in the box scores.

“Although we haven’t been winning a lot of matches, every time we play we get better. We have a small team so we all get a lot of playing time, which is nice,” said Weglarz.

Against Simpson each athlete was able to win a few games, but could not close on their opposition in the end.

Senior Ale Ruales had the closest game as the number one singles competitor for Loras, taking her second set to force a tiebreaker, losing 7-5.

The three doubles matches ended in losses for the team at 8-3, 8-4, and 8-2, respectively.

Loras’ most competitive dual was against Central College as they were able to push a few matches to the third set.

Ale Ruales started out the day against Central with a 3-6 victory but then dropped the next set 6-4 before playing a back-and-forth game before losing 10-7 in the final set.

The bright spot for the team came from sophomore Est Mungai who took the 6th singles match and after dropping her first match 1-6 came back firing to win convincingly 6-3 and 10-1.

“We are a very young team and I see a lot of potential. All of the sophomores (Rebecca Weglarz, Emily Morrison, and Est Mungai) have really stepped up in their level of play since last year which is great,” Weglarz said. “Also, our one and only incoming first-year, Caroline Rainey, has been a wonderful addition to the team. Her competitiveness, especially in doubles, has been really great for the team as a whole.”

Going into Sunday, with two losses behind them from Saturday, the team did not fare much better against Coe.

“This last week alone we had 7 matches over the course of one week, with not a lot of practice time in between,” said Weglarz. “I feel that our team did a great job keeping up their energy through all of the matches, but it really tired us all out.”

The Duhawks managed to win a total of nine games throughout the nine match-ups, with their best chance coming from Caroline Rainey.

Loras’ record now falls to 1-9, and 0-5 in conference.

The women get just about a week’s worth of rest and practice to prepare for their next match-up on September 20, at 3:30 p.m. at St. Ambrose University; and Weglarz sees that benefitting the team greatly.

“Because almost all of our matches have taken place in the first few weeks of our season, it’s been hard to be able to practice in between matches. However, now we have a bit of a break from match play and can start working on improving some things before conference.”

Karl Stubben and the Loras Women’s tennis team can be best described as a program on the rise with exciting new players that work hard to improve every day.

“This group actually has a chance to basically decide here the next couple years if they want their names attached to a program being turned around,” said Stubben.

These Duhawks are physically much stronger than last year’s squad, well-conditioned, and are very eager to learn how to become an elite group of players.

“I’m really excited about this group,” said Stubben. “One thing I’ve been telling them is that if the effort level stays where it is at and the learning curve stays steep we have a really good chance to be a tough squad by conference tourney time and that we can present a lot of problems in other teams.”

The team is very young and the problem they are encountering at this point in the season is getting the new young players to take what they learn in practice and put those things into action come game day.

The young player to watch as the season continues to go on is first-year Caroline Rainey, who played four years as number one singles at her high school.

“Caroline is expected to learn and make the adjustments to this conference,” said Stubben. “She is now playing no. 5 for a young developing team and I believe she has potential to be a very good player in this conference.”

Senior Alejandra Ruales will be crucial to the team’s success this season as she has developed her skills over her four seasons on the team and will need to lead the Duhawks late in the season if they want to have a chance at making a dent in the Iowa Conference tournament at the end of the season. The squad is working very hard to become a team the school can rally behind.

Last season the team went 2-12, but  according to coach Stubben, with the team from last season returning, there is time for the team to grow. Stubben sees this group as having an outstanding chance to be on top of the conference for tennis in the near future.

The team picked up their first victory on Monday afternoon and were 1-4 going into Wednesday’s match-up versus Luther.

The Duhawks get a nice set of games at home this weekend and will start the action Friday, September 9th at home against Wisconsin – Stevens Point, followed by three conference match ups versus Simpson, Central, and Coe College.

He might not be proud of the 1-12 record that the women’s tennis team has compiled this fall, but Coach Karl Stubben couldn’t be prouder of his young athletes.
“Despite our record, I have never seen a group of players keeping their heads up like this. We are on the right track,” he said. “We knew it was going to be a long year in the loss column, but it is up to us to make this a temporary thing, and it is up to us to see how temporary it will be.”
After a non-conference loss to St. Ambrose over the weekend, the women now are turning their attention to the upcoming Iowa Conference Tournament.
Stubben has seen his team grow. As an example, he noted that first-year Rebecca Weglarz had competed only doubles in high school before being thrust into collegiate singles competition for the Duhawks.
“I’ve never put much emphasis on winning and losing, most of what I focus on is preparation for the postseason,” said Stubben.
The tournament will take place in Iowa City on consecutive weekends, on Oct. 8 and 15.
“We may have the last (seed) in the tournament, but we have kids ready to step up,” Stubben said. “We have also have a tradition of playing well at the conference tournament.”
Stubben noted that the tournament will be yet another learning experience for his young team, which is expected to lose just one member at the end of the season.

The Duhawks enjoyed a sweet taste of victory last week when they squared off against Mount Mercy College last Wednesday.

“It felt good to see our lower singles matches getting stretched out. That has been a concern with who of the younger members is going to step up,” said coach Karl Stubben.

The meet started out with junior Ale Ruales going up against Tay Chapin. Ale wasted no time in getting the Duhawks started, and she swept Chapin without being scored upon.

Following Ruales for the Duhawks was senior Clare Tuchscherer, who won her first set, 7-5. She lost her second set, 4-6, before rallying to win the tie-breaking set in a 10-3 route.

The last Duhawk to win her singles match was sophomore Sarah Dickhut, who swept her opponent while allowing just two points in the match.

“After we won the three singles matches, I felt pretty good,” Stubben said. “The turning point of this meet was Clare’s match. She was in the most jeopardy.”

In the doubles matches, Ruales and Tuchscherer won 8-6, while sophomore Rachel Weglarz and Dickhut also won 8-3.

The women ended up winning the meet 5-4.

The next day, the Duhawks faced off against Luther, which Luther won 6-3. In the singles matches, sophomore Sarah Alt and first-year Emily Morrison won by default. The Duhawks also won a doubles match as a result of a default for the team of senior Caitlin Dolan and Weglarz.

Next up for the women is St. Ambrose. The meet takes place at home at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

“We are looking forward to this meet. They are always tough,” said Stubben. “We are really looking forward to Ale’s rematch with [Amanda] Gomez, who she played last year.”

Knowing the Iowa Conference Tournament is out of reach this year, Stubben and his team are looking ahead to next year.

“We are only losing one person,” Stubben said. “This group in its form will determine next year. We can make it or break it.”

It’s been a rocky season so far for the women’s tennis team, but the young team has been learning from each match and now is playing at a much higher level than it was at the beginning of the season.

Coach Karl Stubben said that it sometimes is difficult for a young team to find patience, but he is happy with the team’s involvement as it prepares for the final few matches of the season. 

“(Junior) Ale Ruales is definitely the player of the week and (senior) Clare Tuchscherer has been doing great all season, and (sophomores) Carly Villano and Rachel Weglarz have improved tremendously,” Stubben said.

With Ruales winning her last four singles matches and Tuchscherer winning three of her last four, the Duhawks’ top two players are definitely on top of their game. Ruales and Tuchscherer also pair up for doubles, and they have won three of their last four doubles matches. 

But these two are not the only ones who have raised their game in doubles play. Sophomore Sarah Dickhut and Weglarz have won two out of their last four matches. 

“These last several matches have been close,” said Stubben. “There was a lot of strong play out of the lineup, and we are getting a lot stronger.” 

The Duhawks were especially competitive in the past couple of matches. 

Loras dropped a heartbreaking 5-4 decision to crosstown rival University of Dubuque last week. 

“I am looking forward to playing UD again (on Sept. 29). Just to show how much we have improved,” Stubben said. “I know we can beat them and I look forward to splitting our games.”

Then against a tough Simpson team, Loras exhibited even more improvement, despite losing the match, 6-3. 

For now, Stubben is curious to see how the Duhawks fare against Luther another tough Iowa Conference. They will play the Dutch at noon Saturday.

“We will have to play aggressive against Luther, which is usually a tough school. If we do not play aggressive they will take it to us,” said Stubben.

Loras - It was a dreary day, and the temperature felt more like the end of November than the beginning of October.

The Duhawks’ latest opponent,

Wartburg, made sure the day stayed dreary for the Duhawks, beating Loras convincingly, 8-1.

The lone win came from the No. 2  doubles team of juniors Alisha Espey and Breann Billiet.

In what was supposed to be the second part of a doubleheader against Cornell, Mother Nature intervened. The rain drove the players inside and postponed the match until Wednesday.

Nonetheless, even with the loss to Wartburg, all indications point to the women making their first Iowa Conference Team Tournament since 2004.

Loras now sits in fifth place in the conference with two league matches left. The Duhawks need to beat either the University of Dubuque or Cornell this week to avoid any sort of tiebreaker situation. So, the team’s season-long goal of reaching the conference tournament is well within its grasp.

To the seniors on the team — Lindsay Dunkirk, Brenda Beckers, Kady Homewood, and Christie Runde — such an  achievement would be particularly special.

The final brackets have now been released and the Duhawks are slated to play Wartburg College tonight in Iowa City at the IIAC team championship.

Loras-Before the Homecoming celebrations began Saturday morning, the women’s tennis team took to the courts against conference foe, Luther College, looking for a big win against a tough Norse team.

Fittingly, the day was foggy, and there was not a whole lot of sunshine to be found for the Duhawks on the courts either. The Norse beat the Duhawks, who saw their Iowa Conference record fall to 3-3, and they are 6-7 overall.

Coach Karl Stubben was pleased, however, with the heart that his team showed.

“They did a good job making life difficult for them (Luther). They may not have won, but they didn’t stop” he said.

The Duhawks will host Upper Iowa University today. Stubben looks at this match as an opportunity for the team to test themselves against the Division II Peacocks.

He believes that these types of matches help a team really see where they stand. He believes this year’s team should be ready to compete with UIU.

Loras also will host its next conference match Saturday against Wartburg. If the Duhawks prevail, this match would go a long way in cementing the Duhawks place in the conference tournament.

“The seniors are especially fired up for these final conference matches,” Stubben said, “They are looking to make one last conference tournament push.”

 

Crystal Klein
Published: September 24, 2008

Dubuque-The Loras women’s tennis team started out a little rough this year, but are working on improving their weaknesses.

“I think some of the things we need to work on are our consistency, just keeping our heads straight and just keeping the big W in mind is probably the biggest thing,” said sophomore tennis player Clare Tushscherer.

The women might be young and inexperienced, but their new faces are stepping it up to help get those wins.

Head coach Karl Stubben said, “We have a lot of new kids playing this year, a lot of new kids contributing, just getting them familiar with the way the conference works and the level of play is the big thing at this point.”
Even though St. Ambrose is a non-conference match they are Loras’ biggest competitor this year, but coach has faith in the women.

“That’s a match that I kind of have penciled in as one that if we could find a way to get that one, I think that means we took some huge steps forward. They are going to be very tough, but we’re always fired up,” said coach Stubben.
Coach Stubben says this is the most productivity that he has seen in his 4 years of coaching at Loras and hopefully the girls will keep improving.

The women are on track and will hope to continue winning their matches throughout the year.

Crystal Klein can be reached at Crystal.Klein@loras.edu