Milwaukee City Wire

The Milwaukee women's tennis team faced a challenging match against the University of Chicago, ranked second nationally at the NCAA Division III level. The Panthers were defeated 6-1 in Friday night's contest at XS Tennis.

Head coach Mark Goldin expressed pride in his team's efforts, stating, "The team fought hard. Chicago is the DIII defending national champion and [head coach] Jay Tee has done an amazing job with the program."

Milwaukee managed to strike first in doubles play with Nadiia Konieva and Nikola Nikolajeva securing a 6-1 victory at No. 2 doubles. However, the Maroons claimed victories at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to earn the point.

In singles competition, Nikolajeva delivered a win for Milwaukee by defeating Isabelle Chong 6-0, 6-4. Despite strong performances from other team members, Milwaukee was unable to capture additional individual wins as UChicago continued their winning streak of 20 consecutive duals and home matches.

Konieva put forth a notable effort in her singles match, recovering from a first-set loss to force a tiebreaker in the third set before falling short with a score of 7-6 (7-5).

Looking ahead, Goldin emphasized improvement: "Our focus is to improve every time from the last match to the next match and we accomplished this," he said. The Panthers will face Valparaiso on Saturday as they continue their road trip.