The game is on, but nobody’s home.
Paola Calderon was the last woman on the court Saturday, fighting to win the second set in a 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 1 singles.
The Marquette women stood to watch as each volley grew more intense and the tired Calderon and her Wisconsin-Milwaukee opponent battled with every shot.
More than a dozen fans for the opposition huddled on the bleachers, growing quiet through each rally and exploding with cheers whenever the moment came.
Calderon said she lost steam during the match, but knew what she had to do to pull through with the final win of the day, ending the dual match for Marquette, 7-0.
“I got a little bit lazy with my shots, but I just got it together,” Calderon said. “I didn’t want to go to three sets.”
Even though she came out on top, the UW-Milwaukee fans were dominating the bleachers. There were more Marquette fans earlier in the day during the match against Wisconsin. This crowd, however, belonged to the Panthers. But a dozen spectators watching and cheering through the match — even if they’re not Golden Eagles — that says something, and that’s exciting.
Sophomore Gillian Hush, who brought her singles record to 11-3 with two wins Saturday, said it obviously helps the atmosphere when there are more fans, but it especially raises the energy level during doubles matches.
“Doubles is key in college matches to clinch the first point, and so we try to be as loud and as energetic as we can to try and win,” she said. “It helps when we have fans there, because even if we are winning for the team, we are also winning for Marquette.”
Basketball draws thousands to the stadiums week after week, be it Tuesday night, Saturday morning or over Christmas break. But the women’s tennis team is lucky if it has 10 people in attendance to cheer on the women any given day at the Helfaer Tennis Stadium.
The reason is logical: Nobody wants to sit around for four hours to watch one-on-one aggression. On doubleheader days like Saturday, it’s even tougher to get fans to stick around. The majority of the crowd is composed of parents and members of the men’s tennis team.
“People aren’t going to stay for 12-hour days here,” coach Jody Bronson said. “Tennis isn’t like going to a basketball game where you basically have a start time and a finish time.
“In tennis you could go three, four hours. That’s a lot to ask of people.”
But the team is still asking, hoping for as many spectators as possible at its dual matches.
“When you play in your own facility, the more people you have, the more inspired you become,” Bronson said. “I think winning helps — knowing that a team is doing well and is being really successful. I think that excites people a little bit, too.”
Timing can be a hindrance, too, with a lot of the team’s biggest matches this year scheduled for Saturday and Sunday mornings.
“Not a lot of students are going to get out of bed at 9 a.m. unless we’re throwing T-shirts,” Bronson said.
Tomorrow, the team faces Miami-Ohio at 1:30 p.m. at the Helfaer. In the middle of a school day, it’s doubtful the team will draw a crowd. The Golden Eagles are used to winning without much vocal support, but fan cheers are always encouraging.
“By having fans cheer for us, it’s somewhat like Marquette giving us that support to represent them successfully,” Hush said.
