BARABOO — The Cheesemakers lost 5-2 to Baraboo and 4-3 to Madison East in back-to-back duals Sept. 15 and 20.

Against the Thunderbirds in a Badger West dual, Lindsay Leuzinger was a winner at No. 2 singles, grinding out tiebreaking match 6-3, 4-6, 10-6. No. 1 singles Krissi Haumer was on the other end of a grueling match herself, falling 4-6, 6-1, 10-7.

Monroe’s other win came at No. 4 singles, where Taylor Jacobson picked up momentum to win as the match went on, 6-3, 6-0.

“We played solid and had another shot at a team win — Krissi lost in a 3-setter and No. 1 doubles lost in a really tight match. If we flip those, we get a nice quality win,” said Monroe coach Matt Bordner. 

At No. 1 doubles, Allison Wunschel and Sydnee Conway lost 6-4, 7-6 (5). 

“I think it shows how close our team is to being in the middle of the pack of the conference, but we need to just continue working hard to get better and see how far we can get by the end of the season,” Bordner said.

Against Madison East, Kate Kundert was Monroe’s lone singles champion, winning in three sets 7-6 (4), 0-6, 10-6. In doubles, Wunschel and Conway won 4-6, 6-1, 10-6, and Grace Versnik and Morgan Johnson were victorious at No. 2 doubles, 7-6 (0), 6-1.

“Kate picked up a big win at No. 3 singles. She played really well in the first set, and lost a fast 0-6 second set. I give her a ton of credit for mentally clearing her head though and giving herself a fresh start to grab a big match tiebreaker win. Kate moved to 8-11 overall this season,” Bordner said.

Jacobson lost at No. 4 singles 6-4, 6-3, and Haumer fell 6-3, 6-1. At No. 3 doubles, Brooke Hanson and Elly Beckman lost 6-4, 6-3.

“I think we actually outperformed how I predicted we would do on paper which is really nice,” Bordner said. “Madison East is a solid team, 8-5 overall, so it’s nice to go head-to-head and come close to grabbing a team win here. They are also in our subsectional, so these matches were pretty high stakes for us in terms of seeding for post season play.”