By Patrick Rafferty
patrick-rafferty@uiowa.edu
The Iowa women’s tennis team is seeing double.
Set to play in the Midwest Regional tournament, the Hawkeyes will split up to compete in separate locations.
Freshman Sonja Molnar and junior Lynn Poggensee-Wei are slated to compete at Northwestern, while the rest of the team will travel downstate to compete at Illinois beginning today.
Iowa Assistant coach Mira Radu said Molnar and Poggensee-Wei were paired together because the two have been doubles partners recently. They are also the team’s No. 1 and No. 2 individual players currently.
“I think it’s a pretty important tournament, and I think the girls are excited to compete,” Radu said. “It’s the last tournament of the fall. We’re a little bit tired, but I think they’re ready to go.”
With doubles play lacking in recent years, this season’s pairings have shown considerable improvement, which have inspired to the Hawkeyes.
While the team has yet to settle on its perfect combination, the women have seen success with three different pairings.
“We’ve worked on doubles more,” Radu said. “We lost some important doubles points during the last season, so we put some more emphasis on it. We’re trying to figure out better ways to practice for it and match different doubles teams.”
Seniors Merel Beelen and Suzana Chmelarova are 4-2 in competition. The duo of senior Kelcie Klockenga and junior Jessica Young share the same record, and Molnar and Poggensee-Wei are 5-1.
Last weekend, Beelen and Chmelarova were nearly perfect, winning two of three matches. Chmelarova’s play for the Hawkeyes have surprised the team in a positive way.
Also doubling down is the play of Klockenga and Young.
“Well, I think it helps that we’re really good friends, and we communicate well. Doubles is about communication,” Young said. “Our styles match up really well together. She’s really consistent, and I’m really aggressive.”
While this season may have produced great results for the duo, that hasn’t always been the case. In the fall of 2007, Klockenga and Young went 2-4.
“We have played together before and have done well, but this year it’s just clicked,” Klockenga said. “It’s really worked. We’ve really been doing a lot better in doubles and I think a lot of it is our attitude and the type of practices we’ve been having.”
One Hawkeye who has yet to see any doubles action this year is Ally Majercik. The sophomore returned last weekend to partake in singles play but has yet to pair up with a teammate.
The team held Majerick out of the first competition and practice to begin the year.
“We were just kind of checking her,” Radu said. “She had some kind of headaches. They were just checking to see if it was something major or dangerous.
“It’s never a good feeling on the team when someone’s hurt. So it’s really great to have her back and play.”
