The Milwaukee women's tennis team enjoys a light week on the schedule, set for just one match this weekend after a late adjustment following what would have been another home match Saturday. The Panthers (4-4) will now compete just once, heading south to take on Illinois State Sunday afternoon.
 
The Redbirds (5-3) are 3-1 at home and are set to welcome the MKE squad Sunday at noon at the Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, Ill. Good news for fans of the program, as ISU will be offering live stats as well as live video of the competition. All links are on the MKE website.
 
Milwaukee is coming off a busy week with three home matches, defeating Eastern Illinois (7-0) sandwiched in between tough losses to both Marquette (4-3) and SIUE (5-2). Nadiia Konieva continues to roll, adding three straight victories at No. 2 to lead the way in singles play, while Laure Razet went 2-1. In doubles action, the team of Emilia Durska and Iva Stejskalova went a perfect 3-0, topping Marquette (6-4), Eastern Illinois (6-1), and SIUE (6-3) all from the No. 3 slot.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
The all-time series leans heavily to the opponent at 7-0, dating back to 1996. The last time they met up was last year (a 5-2 ISU win), which marked the first meeting since 2014. Illinois State is led by head coach Maja Kovacek, who has returned the program to the top of the Missouri Valley Conference, having led the Redbirds to three regular-season titles, two NCAA Tournament appearances and a 26-2 record in league play the past six seasons.
 
Named head coach in 2014, Kovacek is entering her 10th year at the helm of the program during the 2023-24 academic year. During the 2022-23 campaign, Kovacek led the Redbirds to a perfect 8-0 mark in Missouri Valley Conference play to earn the regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed in the MVC Championship, earning her MVC Coach of the Year honors for the third time in her tenure with the Redbirds. Overall, the Redbirds went 16-7 overall.
 
The team is 5-3 this season (they also battle SIUE Saturday) but has dropped back-to-back decisions following the strong 5-1 start. The team has been edged, 4-3, in back-to-back matches against Marshall (Feb. 17) and DePaul (Feb. 18). Singles play is led by a trio of student-athletes with near-perfect records at the top of the lineup, as Lana Caculovic is unbeaten at 8-0 (all at No. 2), Tijana Zlatanovic is 7-1 (all at No. 1), and Nevena Kolarevic is 6-1 (all at No. 3). Zlatanovic was one of six MVC "All-Select" team members in the postseason a year ago, while Kolarevic is the reigning MVC Freshman of the Year. On the doubles side, Zlatanovic and Caculovic have gone 6-1 as the No. 1 team.
 
PILING UP THE WINS
Nadiia Konieva is off to an incredible start to the season and now sits at 12-1 overall on the campaign in singles play. She is also 7-0 at No. 2 and has won seven consecutive heading into play on Sunday. Laure Razet is second with nine wins (9-5), while Sara Simonova (7-6) is third. In doubles, it's a tie between Konieva (11-5) and Iva Stejskalova (11-3) for the team lead in victories.
 
IT'S A SWEEP
The Panthers swept the Horizon League Under Armour Player of the Week awards Feb. 7, when Sara Simonova was named the Horizon League Singles Player of the Week, while Simonova and Babette Burgersdijk partnered up to be selected as the Horizon League Doubles Team of the Week.
 
Simonova went 2-0 on the week and is the first MKE player to earn the league singles honor since Mayya Perova in March of 2022. In sweeping the awards with Burgersdijk (the duo also went 2-0 against North Dakota and Bradley), it marked the first time MKE tennis has accomplished that league feat of all three accolades at once since February of 2021 when Greta Carbone (singles) and Mayya Perova/Nikki Milner (doubles) were honored.
 
NEW LEADERSHIP AT THE TOP 
Hopes remain high this spring for the Panthers and first-year head coach Mark Goldin after the team reached the Horizon League Tournament semifinals. That followed a trip to the league championship match the year prior. A year ago, the squad was knocked out by top-seeded Youngstown State, coming up just short of a return trip to the title match.
 
Goldin is a fixture in the Milwaukee tennis community and was named the head coach of the Panthers in August, 2023, following a very successful run as the head coach at Cardinal Stritch University and, most recently, as the assistant general manager at Elite Sports Club in Mequon.

His tenure at Cardinal Stritch from 2013 to 2021 was impressive, earning the Wilson ITA Women's NAIA National Coach of the Year Award in 2014 in addition to four East Region Wilson ITA Coach of the Year accolades and Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors on eight different occasions (4 women's/4 men's).
 
Goldin guided the Wolves to a 64-1 overall CCAC conference record over his first eight seasons on the women's side after founding the program, eight CCAC Conference championship titles, and a team ranking as high as No. 4 in the nation. On the men's side, the team went 61-4 in CCAC play, claiming seven league titles as well as a national ranking as high as No. 2 in back-to-back seasons. His teams also received the highest team GPA awards from the department numerous times, including winning the award on each side his final semester.
 
No stranger to the Panthers, Goldin served as an assistant with the program from 2009 through 2012, helping the team improve from near the bottom of the league standings to a Top-3 program in his time. In fact, MKE went from five team wins, 39 individual wins and a 2-6 conference record in his first year to 13 team wins, 126 individual wins and a 6-2 Horizon League record for third place, the best in school history at the time.
  
ROSTER MAKEUP
The current roster comes from an extensive background of seven different countries and will consist of five returners, a transfer to the program, and two freshmen. Leading the way for the returners in Nadiia Konieva, who was named All-Horizon League First Team as well as the Horizon League Freshmen of the Year following an outstanding first season with the Panthers (just fourth MKE tennis player to earn Freshman of the Year honors in program history). She finished the season with an overall record of 20-14 in singles play and 18-14 in doubles action. Konieva played singles from No. 2 to No. 4 position and recorded 20 singles victories, the first Panther to achieve the 20-plus milestone since 2017.
 
FALL FESTIVITES
This fall, Milwaukee competed in three different tournaments, visiting Michigan and for a pair of trips in addition to an event in-state. Konieva led the way in singles with a 5-1 mark, with newcomer Laure Razet joining her for the team lead with a 5-2 ledger. Freshman Evelina Anastasi was next at 4-2. In doubles, the team of Konieva and Razet paced the Panthers at an impressive 4-1.
 
Milwaukee has been picked to finish fourth in the league this season in a poll of the league's coaches, despite very strong finishes to their campaign each of the past two years. The Panthers finished 2-4 last spring and went into the Horizon League Tournament as the No. 5 seed, knocking off No. 4 Northern Kentucky, 4-0, before falling to Youngstown State in the semifinals.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
The Panthers have been stellar at home of late, going 26-13 over the past four-plus years, including a 10-3 mark in 2021. Last season, MKE claimed victories in three of its final four home duals heading into the postseason and were 8-4 overall.
 
UP NEXT
The team opens March with a pair of weekend matches, heading to Whitewater Saturday (12:30 p.m. start) before coming right back home to host UC Irvine Sunday (10 a.m.) at River Glen Elite.