So far in the young season, the Wisconsin men's tennis team has yet to compete outside of the venue they call home'??Madison's Nielsen Tennis Center'but the courts have been kind to the Badgers. Last Friday they kicked off their season with a victory over Northern Illinois and followed it up yesterday afternoon with their second straight win against DePaul. The Blue Demons were shut out 7-0 and fell to 1-3 on the season.
UW racquets served up wins in two of three doubles matches to begin the day thanks to Lachezar Kasarov and Jeremy Sonkin, who defeated Eric Huffman and Austin Doerner in the No. 1 slot. Felipe Bellido and Nolan Polley'who each won their second matches of the season by identical scores of 8-6'defeated Gabe Inchauste and Jack Komar.
Head coach Greg Van Emburgh knew it wasn't exactly a decisive victory, but credited his guys for taking the quick-moving nature typical of doubles matches in stride.
'The doubles point could have gotten away from us,' Van Emburgh said. 'You can quickly lose the point if one or two guys aren't as intense. Doubles is only decided by a point or two, here and there. It's really important that everyone is ready to play because doubles goes so quick. You don't have a lot of time to figure out things.'
The Badgers, who clearly favor solitude, remained perfect in singles play as six players are 2-0. One player of note is Sonkin, a Wheaton, Ill. native, who occupies the No. 1 slot for the Badgers. He and his teammates warded off the struggling Blue Demons to the delight of Van Emburgh, who acknowledged the difficulty of facing the underdog.
'[DePaul] can really sneak up on you,' Greg Van Emburgh said. 'They came in here and they wanted to compete hard. They weren't going to be afraid to try to come out of here with a win. Those are the teams that you have to make sure that you're ready to play against. You have to know that it's not going to be the most perfect tennis match but you need to make sure that you're taking care of business and that you're getting it done. We felt like we did that tonight.'
UW hopes they continue to take care of business next Friday when they hit the road for the first time this season to take on Loyola-Marymount at noon.
