The UW-River Falls Falcons women's tennis team hosted conference rival UW-Stout Sunday, April 11. The match up was expected to be pretty even between the two squads as this rivalry has been extremely close each of the past 5 years with last year's contest going the way of the Falcons in Menomonie.
Originally planned for an outdoor match, things quickly changed during the start of warmups as rain entered the picture and forced the teams to compete inside the Knowles Center at UW-RF.
"We practice indoors mostly all spring season so this somewhat worked in our favor. We are familiar with the court surface and surroundings. I felt our players were ready to go either way, inside or outside," said Head Coach Dan Stumpf. "The only downside to playing indoors this season is neither team was allowed spectators to enjoy the competition due to WIAC Covid policies this season."
All three doubles matches were extremely competitive from the start. The Falcons jumped up in all three matches early winning some crucial Ad points to finish off games. However, as figured, UW-Stout put up a fight to keep things close throughout in #1 and #2 doubles.
#3 Doubles team Delaney Osmond and Macy Ragsdale put the first point on the board for the Falcons with an 8-3 win. The Blue Devils evened up the match when their team closed out #1 doubles team Kailey Courteau and Abbie Reed 8-3 and put all the focus on the remaining doubles match.
The #2 doubles team Gabby Potthoff and Karyn Duddeck won in dramatic fashion 8-7 (6) in a tie break.
"Gabby and Karyn really fought hard today and were rewarded with a huge win for us. They both are very gritty competitors that were hungry for a win today," Stumpf said.
Potthoff and Duddeck were set to close the match out at 7-6 with 3 match points on their racket, but a determined Blue Devil team denied the win in regulation and won the game to force a tie breaker.
Once again in the tie break, the UW-RF senior Potthoff and sophomore Duddeck held a 5-1 lead, but it quickly turned into a match point against them at 5-6 before the they won 3 big points in a row to close out the match and win the tie breaker 8-6.
The Falcons and Blue Devils then squared off in singles, but with only 4 playable indoor courts the bottom 4 matches were put out first and #1 and #2 singles had to wait for their turn until two of the matches completed.
#3 singles Potthoff played a strategic and steady match to gain the third point for the Falcons with a 6-0, 6-1 victory. #6 singles Kaedyn Kirchner then add the Falcon's 4th win of the day winning 6-2, 7-6 (5). Shortly after that, the Blue Devils won at #4 singles as Duddeck put up a great fight despite the loss 6-3, 7-5.
As the remaining 2 matches entered to play, #4 singles Osmond delivered the team victory for the Falcons with a 3 set win 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.
"Delaney was our all star today closing out the match after dropping the second set and having to create her own momentum to win the third set for us," said Coach Stumpf. "I am very proud of her will to win that match today."
#2 singles Reed faced a tough senior player from UW-Stout that went the way of the Blue Devils 6-4, 6-3. The match ended after #1 singles Courteau was upended by the UW Stout player in a 3 set match 6-3, 2-6, 10-4.
"This was a great rebound win for us today after losing a competitive match the day before at Stevens Point. I feel like we are continuing to get stronger in our final two weeks of the season before our Conference Tournament and that is exciting," Stumpf added.
The final score on the day went UW-RF's way, 5-4.
The Falcons will travel to UW-Oshkosh on Saturday, April 17 for a 2:00pm match.
