The 2015 fall season of Mount Mary University tennis is in the books. The Blue Angels had some big changes from last season, but the singles play and youthful squad, has the team hopeful for the future. All in all, the Blue Angels finished the fall campaign with a record of 1-11.
A new head coach and a brand new conference where the Blue Angels became affiliate members. The merge of a different team philosophy and a heightened level of competition in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference led to a rocky start for the Blue Angels.
In the first two non-conference matchups, the Blue Angels were swept 6-0, 9-0. It took the Blue Angels until their fourth dual match to score their first team point against NACC opponent Milwaukee School of Engineering. Once that monkey was off their back, the Blue Angels buckled in and mustered up some more consistent singles play which led to their first ever regular season conference win.
The win came against Lakeland College in an 8-1 fashion. It marked the first win in No. 1 singles and the second win for No. 1 doubles, but those wins would be the beginning of the individual successes for many Blue Angels.
Head Coach Callie Schroeder confirmed, "We had a rough couple of matches to start because of the high level of tennis skill and some non-conference matches. Even though we were not getting many wins as a team, the girls continued to be positive and play respectfully. When we attained our first win the morale of the team increased even more!"
Ana Mercado (Jr./Grafton, Wis.) went 5-2 in singles matches in 2014. The 2015 started off a bit slow for the junior, but once conference play started, Mercado picked it up and finished with a 4-6 conference record.
Newcomer Amy Gossett (Fr./Franklin, Wis.) helped out in conference plays as well finishing the season with a 4-5 record in the NACC and a 3-3 record overall in her No. 3 singles matches.
This fall tennis season will be the last for three Blue Angels Brooke Slamka (Sr./Racine, Wis.), Krista Olson (Sr./Appleton, Wis.) and Sydney Dahlstrom (Sr./Marquette, Mich.). The three seniors were all part of the two record setting seasons for MMU tennis. In 2013, when MMU set the school's single season win record with six, and 2014 when the team tied that record leaving two games on the scheduled cancelled for weather.
The season ended on six match losing streak, but the Blue Angels continued to battle in each dual match including some hard fought battles like a 5-4 loss to NACC foe Dominican, and a 6-3 loss to Concordia Chicago.
"We are using this year as a building year…" coach Schroeder continued, "We want to be able to have a full roster in the future and want to perform more competitively in the conference"
The Blue Angels may not have finished with the record they had hoped for, but with the late season growth and dedication of the current roster many are hopeful the Blue Angels will resume their winning ways.
