Milwaukee City Wire

The Milwaukee women's tennis team began its fall season at the 13th annual Gopher Invitational, held at the University of Minnesota's Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis. The event took place over three days and included teams from Minnesota, Northern Iowa, Marquette, St. Thomas, South Dakota, and North Dakota.

Head coach Mark Goldin expressed his satisfaction with the team's performance. "I am so excited about how the ladies started off the season," Goldin said. "We are playing some great tennis, everyone is competing hard, and the support from the teammates has been amazing."

During the tournament, each day featured two rounds of doubles followed by singles matches played as best-of-three sets. The Panthers recorded a 10-5 record in doubles play and went 10-7 in singles matches.

Goldin noted that he is optimistic about upcoming competitions. "I feel confident going into next weekend's Horizon League Individual Championships," he said. "We are looking forward to a solid week of recovery and preparation and can't wait to get back on the road to Ohio."

First-year player Nel Van Hout led Milwaukee in singles competition with an undefeated 3-0 record across three days. She won her matches against opponents from Marquette and St. Thomas. Nadiia Konieva also had a strong showing, winning her first two singles matches before falling on Sunday.

Emilia Durska finished with a 2-1 record in singles after victories over players from Northern Iowa and Minnesota.

In doubles action, lineups were adjusted daily by Goldin. Van Hout contributed four wins while pairing with both Sara Simonova and Nikola Nikolajeva for perfect records alongside each partner. The team concluded the invitational by winning all three of their doubles matches on Sunday.

Nikolajeva added two more doubles wins with different partners during the weekend, while Honoka Yamashita ended her doubles run with a 2-1 mark.

Next weekend, Milwaukee will compete at the Horizon League Individual Championships in Mason, Ohio at the Lindner Family Tennis Center from September 26 through September 28.

Singles results showed contributions across several players: Konieva defeated Else Vander Stichele (St. Thomas) and Kanyanut Sudsaard (Northern Iowa), while Van Hout secured wins against Aiyana Abott (Marquette), Ingrid Forsberg (St. Thomas), and Anna Sidorenko (St. Thomas). Other notable performances included Simonova’s win over Anna Bjornestad (St. Thomas) and Durska’s victories over Li Yangjiaxin (Northern Iowa) and Yinong Ma (Minnesota).

Doubles pairings varied throughout the event; among them were Van Hout/Simonova finishing 2-0 together, Nikolajeva/Schroeder going 1-1, Durska/Konieva ending at 0-2, Van Hout/Nikolajeva posting a perfect 2-0 mark, Nikolajeva/Durska splitting their two matches for a 1-1 result, Simonova/Yamashita also finishing even at 1-1, Van Hout/Konieva losing their only match together at 0-1, Simonova/Konieva winning one match without defeat at 1-0, and Yamashita/Durska taking their sole match together for a win.

The full breakdown of individual records included Van Hout at 3-0 in singles; Konieva at 2-1; Durska also finishing singles play at 2-1; Simonova recording one win without loss; Yamashita finishing her singles efforts at 1-2; Nikolajeva also ending up with one win versus two losses; Schroeder dropping her only singles contest.