Tennis

MILWAUKEE – The Mount Mary University Tennis Team begins their 2016 season this Tuesday against Carroll. The Blue Angels have gone through a few changes in the last few seasons including joining the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference as affiliate members in 2015, and a new head coach for this upcoming season.

The Blue Angels signed Allen Neuwirth as the next head coach this offseason. Neuwirth has been working as a coach for Brookfield Central boys' varsity reserve program for the last three seasons while also working as a tennis instructor at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

"We are only a week into the season and already there is a strong team chemistry developing." Coach Neuwirth added, "We have four returning veterans from last year and they are a strong leadership core."

Already finding a good mix of new and returning players, Neuwirth will be able to count on Ana Mercado (Sr./Grafton, Wis.) along with transfer returner Andrea Monacelli (Jr./Sussex, Wis.) for leadership.

"We're pretty new, but something I can say that is special about this group of women is everybody right off the bat is extremely supportive." Senior Mercado went on, "…all of the new players are extremely willing to learn and the returning players are willing to teach the new players skills. So I think we are going to work very well together as a unit."

The Blue Angels are coming off a 1-11 season in 2015. A big competitive bump from independent play, the NACC features some of the region's top tennis programs. The Blue Angels win in 2015 came against Lakeland in a dominant 8-1 dual match. The largest win since the 2014 9-0 sweep over the Muskies.

As the Blue Angels look to add depth, Mercado has had plenty of success at MMU. Playing seven matches in the number one singles spot in 2014 netted Mercado a 5-2 record and a 4-3 duals; all 2014 duals matches were also the one seed.

As Monacelli did not play in 2015, however, in 2014 Monacelli played the relative utility role for the Blue Angels. Going 3-4 overall in singles, Monacelli played anywhere from the second seed to the fourth.

With the added flexibility, MMU brings back sophomores Amy Fahrendorf (Cedarburg, Wis.) and Amy Gossett (Franklin, Wis.). Fahrendorf finished with a 0-6 record in singles, but showed strong outings multiple times including a close match against Dominican's Liz Cordes that took extra points to decide.

Gossett returns after showing a lot of success against NACC teams. The sophomore went 4-5 in singles against the conference opponents. In 2015, and hopes to keep that trend going this year.

 "We build systematically, like a bricklayer would one block at a time." Coach Neuwirth continues to explain his coaching philosophy, "…everybody has their own learning curve, so I follow that. We go as far as we can in the time frame that we have available."

That building begins Tuesday Sept. 6 against host Carroll University. Then the Blue Angels will get ready for their second season in conference play which begins Sat. Sept. 10 when MMU will play a doubleheader against Wisconsin Lutheran and Milwaukee School of Engineering. Stay tuned to mtmaryathletics.com for all updates.