EAU CLAIRE, Wis.- UW-Eau Claire defeated UW-Oshkosh, 4-0, at the John & May Menard Tennis Center on Tuesday (April 21) during the first round of the WIAC Tournament (presented by Culver's).
 
WIAC Tournament matches are played to decision, meaning once a team reaches four team points, the meet ends and all remaining matchups are labeled as unfinished instead of a normal dual's play to completion format.
 
The Titans (7-6) gave the Blugolds (12-9) a fight in the doubles bouts, dropping both the No. 1 and No. 3 flights by close tiebreakers.
 
Olivia Pethan (Oshkosh/Fox Valley Lutheran) and Courtney Carpenter (Oshkosh/Oshkosh West) pushed Beatriz Felchak and Reese Burton to extra points in the first flight before falling by a score of 10-8 in the tiebreaker before Mana Usui (Franklin/Franklin) and Sarah Schaeffer (Rock Springs/Reedsburg) dropped in the third flight to Stella Platt and Morgan Briggman by extra point totals of 8-6.
 
At No. 2 doubles, Brianna Owens (Appleton/Kimberly) and Kayla Gibbs (Muskego/Muskego) were defeated, 6-1, by Delaney Hanson and Kiera Schmid.
 
Of the three singles flights that finished before the Blugolds reached four team points, Cate Gerl (Joliet, Ill./Lincoln-Way West) had the closest match with a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Hanson in the fifth flight.
 
Schaeffer dropped a 6-1, 6-1 decision to Briggman at No. 6 singles and Gibbs was defeated by Aubrey Wittwer, 6-1, 6-0 at No. 3 singles.
 
Usui won the first set of the No. 1 singles over Burton by a 6-2 tally and led 5-0 in the second but couldn't get the sixth point fast enough to earn the Titans a point.
 
Carpenter, the Titans' lone senior this year, played mostly in doubles action during her collegiate career. She posted an overall mark of 26-33 in doubles play, including a 9-8 record in the second flight. In singles matches, she went 1-4, picking up a 6-2, 6-3 win over UW-Stevens Point's Morgan Milan during the now-discontinued WIAC Championship on October 25, 2024.
 
Oshkosh's overall record of 7-6 marked the fourth season in a row with a winning record since head coach Steve Francour returned to Oshkosh ahead of the 2022-23 campaign. The Titans had not posted an overall winning record in at least four consecutive seasons since a six-year stretch between 1995-96 and 2000-01 during Francour's first stint at the helm.
 
The only other time the program put together more than two consecutive winning seasons was a four-year run of over .500 tennis between 1974-75 and 1977-78 under UW-Oshkosh Athletics Hall of Fame coach Jim Davies. Davies and Francour also own additional back-to-back seasons of winning tennis.