Women's Tennis Drops Season Opener In Hard Fought Battle
Sept. 5, 2003
The Lakeland Muskies Women's Tennis Team dropped a tough 5-4 decision to Elmhurst College Friday afternoon in Sheboygan. The Muskies, the defending Lake Michigan Conference champions, dropped to 0-1 following the non-conference match. Elmhurst moved to 2-0.

The Muskies, who return four players from last year's team, including Hanaka Murakami at number one, Cody Carlson at number two and Lisa Hentges at number four, received standout play from their top singles players to lead the way.

Murakami led the Muskies at the number one singles position with and easy 6-1, 6-2 victory over Katie Gregory. Carlson followed suit at number two singles with a grueling 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 come from behind victory over Angela Nigliazzo. Heidi Heling dropped the number three singles match 6-1, 6-0 to Lindsay Robert, but Hentges responded by taking the number four singles 3-6, 6-2, and 6-0 in a long match over Dara Fitzpatrick.

Andrea Schuchart and Sarah Wall both fell at number five and six singles to complete the individual matches. Schuchart fell 6-1, 6-3 to Elizabeth Lauer, who hails from nearby Howards Grove High School, while Wall lost 6-0, 6-0 to Marie Maslowski.

Murakami and Carlson teamed up to win at numer one singles 8-4 over Gregory and Nigliazzo. Heling and Hentges fell 8-3 to Roberts and Maslowski at number two doubles, while Schuchart and Wall fell 8-1 to Sarah Fehrenbacher and Sarah Stachnik at Numer three doubles to complete the scoring.

Lakeland's next match is this Friday when they host Lawrence University in anoth non-conference match-up.