The Milwaukee women's tennis team closes out the month of February with another road trip, but the distance traveled will be the shortest of the season as the team heads across town to take on Marquette. The match is set for Sunday at 11 a.m.
 
Due to renovations at Marquette's tennis facility, the team will be playing the match at Elite Sports Club – North Shore, 5750 N. Glen Park Road, Glendale, Wis. 53209.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Marquette went 13-10 overall and finished 5-2 in Big East play a year ago. The Golden Eagles returned four seniors in Elisabeth Desmarais, Elizabeth Ferdman, Giulia Turconi, and Tiana Windbuchler. UConn graduate transfer Julieanne Bou and freshman Emma Davis round out the newcomers to the team this season. The spring has not gone as planned, with the Golden Eagles sitting at 0-8 heading into play this weekend. They will also host UIC Saturday before welcoming the Panthers Sunday.
 
All time, things have certainly gone Marquette's way, claiming wins in all 20 matches dating back to 1990, but the results have been much closer of late. Last year, the Panthers fell 4-3 and in 2021 the final score was 5-2.
 
LAST WEEK
The Panthers had a tough road trip to Nebraska, falling to Omaha (4-1) and Creighton (6-1) over the weekend. MKE was not able to extend a strong start against Omaha after winning the doubles point and then fell to a red-hot Bluejays team that was undefeated heading into play last weekend. Alice Shields improved to 14-6 on the year with a complete 6-2, 6-2 decision over Siri Kongara at No. 5.
 
SO FAR SO GOOD
The Panthers have four dual wins this season so far and some strong results to build on, including Babette Burgersdijk and Sara Simonova being named the Nike #HLTennis Women's Doubles Team of the Week Feb. 15. Overall in the spring dual season, Nadiia Konieva leads the way with five individual victories (5-3 record), while Alice Shields has four (4-2). In doubles, two teams have four wins apiece: Burgersdijk/Simonova and Shields/Iva Stejskalova.
 
QUICK PREVIEW
Hopes are high this spring for the Panthers and first-year head coach Ryan Kucera, after the team claimed a best-ever runner-up finish at the Horizon League Championships last year. The squad fell to No. 2 Youngstown State in a heartbreaker of a championship match, 4-3, after knocking off top-seeded Cleveland State in the semifinal round.
 
Kucera comes to Milwaukee after two years at Minnesota State University, Mankato, earning Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Coach of the Year honors last season following a very successful campaign on the courts. He led the Mavericks to a 16-10 record, which included an 8-3 ledger in NSIC play. In the process, he guided the program to the largest single-season turnaround in conference history, going from 11th place to third place in just one year.
 
ROSTER MAKEUP
The current MKE roster comes from an extensive background of seven different countries and will consist of a pair of Panther veteran returners in Anika Tylek and Iva Stejskalova, as well as second-year players Babette Burgersdijk and Giorgia Cavestro. Newcomers include Nadiia Konieva, Anouk Ma-Ajong, Alice Shields, and Sara Simonova.
 
Tylek is in her fourth season with the Panthers, having recorded 14 wins in singles and seven in doubles last year. Stejskalova is in her third year at MKE and posted a team-high 16 doubles victories last season as well as seven in singles play.
 
Milwaukee did lose a couple of key pieces to graduation, including Horizon League First-Team honoree Mayya Perova, who capped off her senior season with a career best 19-8 overall record in singles and tallied 15 more victories in doubles. Perova recorded a 10-match win streak during the season, while competing primarily from the No. 2 singles line (13-4) but also went 6-1 from the No. 1 position. She graduated as the winningest doubles player (win percentage) in program history at .722, going 70-27 in her career.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
The Panthers have been stellar at home of late, going 27-12 over the past four-plus years (4-1 in 2023), including a 10-3 mark in 2021. Last season, MKE claimed victories in three of its final four home duals heading into the postseason.
 
UP NEXT
The Panthers start a three-match homestand, welcoming Northern Iowa March 4. Start time is slated for 1 p.m.