Making their second appearance in the sweet sixteen of the NCAA III championship tournament, the UW-Whitewater women's tennis team lost to second ranked University of Chicago 5-0 Sunday in a regional final played in Chicago, Illinois. 

The University of Chicago is ranked second in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III poll and UW-W is twenty-first. 

University of Chicago 5, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 0
singles
1  Kendra Higgins, UC, defeated Kalla Schaefer (Madison/Madison Memorial), WW, 6-2, 6-0
2  Jennifer Kung, UC, and Sydney Divelbiss (Middleton/Middleton), WW, 6-1, 4-0, did not finish
3   Carmen VacaGuzman, UC, and Annie Smith (Algonquin, IL/H.D. Jacobs), WW, 6-4, 1-0, did not finish
4  Alexandra Bayliss (Sheboygan/North), WW, and Linden Li, UC, 5-5, did not finish
5  Megan Tang, UC, defeated Megan Kasten (Verona/Verona), WW, 6-1, 6-0
6  Kelsey McGillis, UC, and Jackie Vitale (Roselle, IL/Lake Park), WW, 6-1, 5-4, did not finish
doubles
1  Higgins/VacaGuzman, UC, defeated Schaefer/Bayliss, WW, 8-3
2  Kung/Li, UC, defeated Divelbiss/Smith, WW, 8-3
3.  McGillis/Tang, UC, defeated Kasten/Lauren Aguilar (Gurnee, IL/Carmel Catholic ), WW, 8-5

Matches were played to the point where a team totaled five points (out of nine possible).

Many of the matches featured ranked players on both sides of the net.  Higgins is ranked first in the ITA Division III Central Region, Schaefer fifth.  Klug is number two in the region, and VacaGuzman fifteenth.  The doubles team of Higgins and VacaGuzman is number one, Schaefer and Bayliss number three.  The Chicago duo of Li and Kung is thirteenth in the region, Whitewater's Divelbiss and Smith went into the match ranked fifteenth.

UW-Whitewater, making its fifth consecutive NCAA III championship tournament appearance, ends the season 23-5 in dual matches.  Chicago, 21-4, will join seven other regional winners at the final championship series May 21-23 in Cary, North Carolina.

All six of Whitewater's singles flight players won at least twenty matches, and two of three doubles teams did as well.  Kalla Schaefer (Madison/Madison Memorial), 26-7, and Megan Kasten (Verona/Verona), 26-4, led the team in wins, and Jackie Vitale (Roselle, IL/Lake Park) had the highest winning percentage at .909 (20-2).  Bayliss and Schaefer teamed up for the most wins in doubles, with Kasten and Lauren Aguilar (Gurnee, IL/Carmel Catholic ) compiling the top percentage at  .857 (18-2).

UW-W defeated Wisconsin Lutheran College 5-0 Friday in the tournament's first round, and followed up with a  5-1 win over Washington University in Saint Louis Saturday to reach the regional final.

For additional information:  Frank Barnes, UW-W tennis coordinator