The UW Oshkosh women’s tennis team concluded their season with a pair of losses against UW-Eau Claire and UW-Stout in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) tournament in Whitewater on Saturday.

UWO competed as a seven seed in the seven-team tournament and lost to UWEC, the two seed, by a score of 9-0 to start the tournament off.

The closest match was a singles matchup between UWO junior Michelle Spicer and UWEC’s Elaine Franta. Franta won the first set 6-2, but Spicer managed to make the second set close by only losing it 7-5.

This year’s WIAC tournament was double elimination, so UWO got a second chance.

UWO’s consolation matchup was against UWS, but they dropped the match by a score of 7-2.

Freshman Maddie Toboyek won her singles matchup against Stout’s Annie Sandry 6-3, 7-5, and Toboyek and Spicer teamed up to win a doubles matchup against Sandry and Lauren Couves 8-6.

UWO finished their season with an 0-9 record overall and an 0-6 record in conference competition.

Spicer, the singles one player for UWO, is proud of the team’s effort considering the odd circumstances. With only six players on the 2021 spring roster, head coach Robert LeBuhn had to put some players in both singles and doubles competition.

“I think the team’s performance and effort given our circumstances was great,” Spicer said. “Being a student athlete alone is hard on a team, but having six players made it a little more complicated. I really commend the women on my team and their ability to adjust so quickly to such a small team.”

Spicer stepped into a huge role as the singles one player this year. She stated that the role was tough for her, as she went 2-7 in singles competition this year.

“Given the circumstances, I had a tougher year than I have had in the past years,” she said. “Going from four singles last year to one singles was a big jump for me and it was hard for me to get back on track.”

Spicer said that she will be breaking her game down and focusing on her groundstrokes this offseason in order to better herself as a tennis player.

“The thing that I intend on focusing on in the off-season is my groundstrokes,” she said. “I feel like they could have been a lot stronger with more practice and this off season I’ll have more time to put into practicing them.”

If WIAC competition resumes its normal schedule next school year, the UWO tennis team will have a quick turnaround and will begin its next season in the fall.

Spicer intends to finish her college career off in the best way possible when the Titans play in the WIAC championship next.

“Heading into the off-season, my focus is hopefully being able to return next year and finish my senior year off successfully in the WIAC conference,” she said.