Members of the Lake Forest College women's tennis team captured titles in five of the six singles brackets at the Midwest Conference Individual Tournaments on Sunday, adding to the three doubles championships they claimed on Saturday.
The day actually began with the league's presentation of its yearly awards and Lake Forest's Raquel Vescovi was announced as the MWC Coach of the Year.
Senior Allison Watts, sophomore Emma Wang, and freshman Katie Wegrecki entered the event as the league's top seeds at #2, #4, and #6 singles, respectively, after Lake Forest was undefeated at those sorts in the lineup during league play this fall. Watts rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 victory in the quarterfinals on Sunday, took both sets 6-2 in the semifinals, and prevailed 6-3, 6-0 in the final to claim her second straight title at the position. The scores in Wang's matches on Sunday were not nearly as lopsided. She won each of her first two contests 6-3, 6-2 and then edged out her opponent 7-5 in both sets in the final to finish the fall with a perfect 29-0 record in singles and doubles combined. Wegrecki did not drop a game in her quarterfinal contest, triumphed 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals, and became the seventh player on the team to win a title on the weekend by posting a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the championship match.
The other three Forester singles players out-performed their seeds. Sophomore Julie Lord, the #2 seed at the top spot in the lineup, staked her claim as the best player in the league in convincing fashion, dropping just one game in each of her first two matches before avenging her only loss during regular season league play 6-2, 6-3 in the final. Junior Leeza Bodnar came in seeded third at #3 but reached the championship match by prevailing 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals and 6-2 in both sets in the semifinals. She was eventually defeated 6-4, 6-2 in the final. Sophomore Tyranny Miller was seeded second at #5 but blanked her opponent 6-0, 6-0 in the quarterfinals, battled for a 7-5, 6-1 victory in the semifinals, and led the final 7-5, 4-2 when her opponent was forced to retire.
No team in the league has ever swept all nine positional championships and Lake Forest is the third program to claim eight, joining Grinnell College's 2004 squad and Ripon College's 1990 team. The Foresters' previous best was three titles originally set in 1984 and matched six times since, including last year.
Lake Forest will continue the 2018-19 season with several non-conference dual matches in the spring before entering the four-team MWC Tournament on April 25 as the top seed.