The Milwaukee women’s tennis team commenced its 2024 fall season at the Gopher Invitational held at Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The event took place from Friday through Sunday and featured twelve teams competing in singles and doubles matches.
Participating teams included St. Thomas, Marquette, North Dakota, South Dakota, Omaha, Northern Iowa, Creighton, Northern Illinois, Milwaukee, Drake, and the University of Chicago.
“This was a great start for the Panthers this fall,” head coach Mark Goldin said. “From top-to-bottom, the team is playing at a high level early in the year. It was a busy three days and I am proud of the girls; we held true to our team identity by competing hard with lots of respect towards our opponents. The freshmen also did great in their first college competition. We are looking forward to cleaning up a few things this week to get ready for the Illinois State invite next weekend.”
Elisa Rubio led Milwaukee’s singles action with an undefeated 3-0 record. She won her matches against St. Thomas on Friday, Northern Iowa on Saturday, and North Dakota on Sunday—all in straight sets.
Emilia Durska also performed well with a 2-1 record. She secured victories against the University of Chicago on Friday and Northern Iowa on Saturday but fell short against St. Thomas on Sunday.
In doubles competition, Nadiia Konieva and Nikola Nikolajeva achieved a 3-2 record over five matches. Giorgia Cavestro and Honoka Yamashita earned two wins out of their five matches.
Konieva and Nikolajeva lost their initial match against the University of Chicago but then won three out of their next four matches—two against Omaha and one against Creighton.
Cavestro and Yamashita faced challenging opponents from Northern Illinois, University of Chicago, and Northern Iowa but managed to win both encounters with North Dakota.
Next weekend, Milwaukee will participate in the Redbird Invitational hosted by Illinois State from Friday through Sunday.
