Panthers Set For League Tournament After Record-Setting SeasonApril 23, 2007
Horizon League Championship Bracket The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's tennis team has earned the fifth seed and will open Horizon League Championship play against Cleveland State Saturday morning in Indianapolis. The Panthers (11-9, 3-4 Horizon) finished tied with UW-Green Bay for fifth place during the regular season, but won a tiebreaker for the fifth seed thanks to a February win over the Phoenix. The 2006-07 season has been a record-breaking one for the Panthers, who have tied the school record for most wins in a single season. In fact, UWM's 11 wins are more than the Panthers have posted in the previous five seasons combined (nine wins from 2001-02 to 2005-06) and the 11 wins mark just the second time in school history Milwaukee has reached double figures in victories. Plus, UWM's fifth-place league finish is its best since the 1997-98 season, when the Panthers finished fourth. This season also saw UWM put together a pair of three-game winning streaks, the first time since the 1999-2000 season where the Panthers won three-straight matches. From an individual standpoint, freshman Ali O'Neal has posted the best single-season in school history. She has collected a school-record 17 singles wins while also tallying 19 doubles wins. Meanwhile, freshman Ashley Schoneman's 15 singles wins are the fourth-most in a single season in school history. When league post-season honors are announced later this week, UWM will be eyeing its first individual honoree since 2003. In fact, UWM has had just six all-league performers since 1994.
The Panthers will find themselves shorthanded this weekend, with Schoneman sidelined after suffering an injury earlier this month against IPFW. Despite that, UWM will be looking for its first league tournament win since the 1999-2000 season, when the Panthers tallied a post-season win over Cleveland State. UWM's match with Cleveland State will begin at 8 a.m. CDT at North Central High School in Indianapolis. The Vikings downed the Panthers, 7-0, earlier this month. Win or lose, UWM will play a second match later in the day as part of the double-elimination event, squaring off with either top-seed UIC or eighth-seed Wright State. |
