EAST TROY — The Cheesemakers opened their girls tennis season at the annual East Troy Invitational. Monroe went 2-3 in five duals — 0-2 on Day 1, but 2-1 on Day 2.
Against East Troy, Monroe was swept 7-0, and the Cheesemakers combined to win just 12 games total in the 14 sets.
“East Troy is such a tough program right now — I give their coach Dave a lot of credit because their girls can really play. Their serve percentage is off the charts and they just rarely make mistakes. Our girls rallied OK, but at the end of the day we just weren’t as consistent and didn’t have any other ways to generate points against a very tough East Troy team,” said Monroe coach Matt Bordner.
Against Union Grove, Monroe lost 6-1. Sydnee Conway and Allison Wunschel, playing at No. 1 doubles, won the only match for the Cheesemakers, 7-5, 6-4.
“It was a very close match, and I really felt like UG had the edge in terms of fundamentals and technique. However, I give Syd and Allison a lot of credit as they battled hard and showed a lot of intensity and focus. We knew if they could maintain that energy then they would have a shot, and they did just that as they closed out two hard fought sets,” Bordner said.
On Day 2, the Cheesemakers fared much better. In the first dual of the day, Delavan-Darien won 4-3, with Monroe sweeping all three doubles matches. Conway and Wunschel won 6-0, 6-3; at No. 2 doubles, Morgan Johnson and Grace Versnik were victorious 6-3, 6-0; and Sydney Wunschel and Megan Markley won a nail-biter 6-3, 4-6, 10-4.
“Our doubles really took care of business, but we just couldn’t find a match to flip in the singles lineup,” Bordner said. “Our exchange student, Krissi Haumer (from Austria) entered in for her first matches and so it was nice for her to start getting her feet wet and some match experience under her belt. Kate Kundert dropped a really close three-setter (No. 4 singles 4-6, 6-4, 10-7) but I was really proud of how she battled.”
In the second match of the day, the Cheesemakers defeated Whitewater 4-3, with the doubles teams and Kundert scoring match wins. The Conway-Wunschel No. 1 doubles tandem swept their opponents 6-0, 6-0. Johnson and Versnik finished 6-2, 6-2 victors, and Brook Hanson and Elly Beckman won 6-1, 7-6. Kundert won 6-1, 6-1 in her match.
In the final dual of the invite, Monroe sank Edgerton 4-3, this time with the entire singles lineup scoring wins, and the doubles getting defeated — albeit with a lineup change.
Conway won at No. 1 singles 6-4, 6-0, and Allison Wunschel winning at No. 2 singles by the same score. Kundert won a 3-set thriller 6-4, 1-6, 10-6, as did Hanson 7-6(3), 2-6, 10-6.
“We entered our final round of the invitational pretty beat up with injuries and so I was forced to make some pretty big changes to our lineup. I certainly wasn’t expecting to grab a team win in this round after our injuries, but I was really happy with how our team responded to some adversity and did what they had to do to help our team out,” Bordner said. “Kate Kundert held down at 3 singles in what ended up being her best match of her career. Her and Brooke both dropped bad second sets after winning close first sets, so it was nice that they had a clean slate heading into that third set tiebreaker. They did a nice job of resetting themselves mentally, and I’m especially proud of Kate for battling and leaving it all out there after playing 3 long singles matches on a day where the sun was just beating down on the courts.”
