The Wisconsin women's tennis team had a nerve-wracking time at two close matches this weekend, losing 3-4 to Indiana on Saturday before coming back to beat Purdue 4-3 Sunday at home.
The Badgers' record is now 6-1 in the Big Ten and 13-5 overall, putting them near the top of the Big Ten standings, second only to Northwestern.
Freshmen stars Lindsay Martin and Katie McGaffigan continued their winning streak, triumphing in both their doubles pairing and their singles matches. Martin and McGaffigan have just one loss in doubles this season. However, the Badgers lost all their other doubles games.
In singles, Wisconsin won seven of 12 individual matches throughout the weekend, including three two-game sweeps by junior Linde Mues against Indiana and McGaffigan and Martin on Sunday.
Saturday's match began with Indiana winning the doubles point, as only Martin and McGaffigan pulled off a win. After singles victories by Mues, McGaffigan and Martin, and losses by seniors Vanessa Rauh and Katie Dougherty, the match came down to the No. 3 game, junior Shana McElroy versus Indiana YEAR Inga Radel. In a tense and emotional game, Radel defeated McElroy 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, clinching the win.
After Saturday's loss, Mues said the team knew they had played well, even with the loss.
\I think we played a tough match,"" she said after Saturday's competition. ""As our coach said after the match, I think it's good that we lost, weird as it may sound, but it'll get us fired up for [Sunday] ... [Sunday's] going to be a really good day for us,"" Mues continued. ""We'll be fired up and get our revenge.""
Sunday, after losing the doubles point again, the match seemed like a repeat of the day before. McGaffigan, McElroy, and Martin won singles points while Dougherty and Mues were defeated. In an eerily familiar scene, both teams gathered to watch Vanessa Rauh's final No. 1 match.
However, history did not repeat itself this time, as Rauh triumphed to the cheers of her teammates.
""We didn't want to go through the same feeling when you lose a close match as we did [Saturday],"" Head Coach Patti Henderson said. ""So I feel that we did a good job of coming out prepared to play.""
McElroy's close loss Saturday affected her demeanor both days, as she had several matches marred by penalties and vocal confrontations with officials.
""I had some problems with the refs both [Saturday] and [Sunday]"" she said. ""That was kind of frustrating, and I maybe lost my composure a little bit. But in the end, I ended up calming down and playing really well.""
The Badgers will next face Northwestern April 13 on the road.
