Girls' tennis team shows promise
Photo by Dan Larson / Sauk Prairie Eagle
Junior Alison Halweg returns a serve in her championship match of the Sauk Prairie Quadranglaur. Halweg beat McFarland's Jenny Ujke, 6-2, 5-7, 1-0(6) in the match.
By Dan Larson, Sauk Prairie Eagle
At No. 3 doubles, Emily Brickl and Amy Lang might not be used to the limelight.
But the duo stole the show for the Sauk Prairie girls' tennis team Aug. 25, posting wins in all three of their matches at the Fort Atkinson doubles tournament en route to one of two championships for the Eagles.
Brickl and Lang beat teams from Fort Atkinson, Lodi and West Bend West — the three other teams in the round-robin tournament — for the title.
Lauren Anderson and Emily Chrisler, who are ordinarily on the junior varsity team, also had an act in the show, winning all three of their matches at No. 4 doubles for Sauk Prairie's other title.
"It was nice to be able to bring another team to see how they compete at the varsity level," head coach Mary Weeks said in a phone interview after the tournament.
In addition to an extra doubles team, the tournament's format also pitted each team's Nos. 1 and 2 singles players on a team at No. 1a doubles and each team's Nos. 3 and 4 singles players together at No. 2b doubles.
Weeks said it was beneficial for the singles players to play in a different style.
"It encouraged some of our singles players to get some experiece playing at the net, where they dont typically get that in singles matches," she said. "It was a nice opportunity to work on that as well."
Stephanie Johnson and Alison Halweg (No. 1a) and Abby Kessenich and Janel McCormick (No. 2) earned second-place finishes.
Sauk Prairie went 2-4 against Fort Atkinson, and 5-1 against both Lodi and West Bend West.
Eagles finish 2nd at own quadrangular Aug. 23
The Sauk Prairie girls' tennis team won championships in just two flights at the quadrangular it hosted Aug. 23 at Sauk Prairie High School.
But the Eagles were runners-up in two flights and captured third place in the other three flights, scoring 20 points en route to a runner-up finish in their first action of the season. McFarland won the quadrangular with 23 points.
"I was just very impressed with (our) level of play," Weeks said in a phone interview Aug. 25. "McFarland has an experienced team (and) we did well to just be three points behind them."
Freshman Alison Halweg beat McFarland's Jenny Ujke, 6-2, 5-7, 1-0(6), at No. 2 singles and the No. 2 doubles team of Abby Kessenich and Janel McCormick beat Casey Carroll and Molly Hagman of Oregon, 3-6, 6-2, 1-0(10) to lead the Eagles.
Weeks said she was impressed that both were able to win tie-breakers to earn their titles.
"Those are things that we look for — when it's close, we're always happy when you come out ahead," she said. "It just shows that they're tough down the line."
Senior co-captain Stephanie Johnson and sophomore Katie Shelton both earned second-place finishes. Johnson lost to Brandi Dohmen of Portage, 6-2, 6-0, in the No. 1 singles championship, and McFarland's Allison Dougherty beat Shelton, 6-2, 6-1, for the No. 4 singles championship.