It was an up and down weekend for the Wisconsin women's tennis team (1-4 Big Ten, 4-13 overall) in Madison. After picking up its first conference victory of the season against Penn State (1-2, 7-6) Saturday, the Badgers fell to Indiana (4-1, 14-5) 5-2 Sunday.
Despite the loss, the freshman No. 3 doubles pairing of Erin Jobe and Elizabeth Carpenter notched their third straight victory in impressive fashion. They defeated the Hoosiers' Alba Berdala and Cecille Perton 8-4. The win was the only one for UW in doubles play.
We've been doing a great job of staying focused and not letting out opponents intimidate us,\ Job said. ""We both go outh there and play our game and do what we know we can do well. Coming out on top has been a real positive thing for both of us.""
In singles play, it again was obvious that the Badgers miss the play of Caitlin Burke, as they were only able to scrape together two wins. Junior Kaylan Caiti struggled in the No. 1 slot, falling 6-2, 6-0.
Sophomore Chelsea Nusslock, Carpenter and Jobe also fell. Nusslock was defeated by Laura McGaffigan, sister of former Wisconsin star Katie McGaffigan 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).
Picking up the wins were sophomores Nicole Beck in the No. 3 slot and sophomore Morgan Tuttle in the No. 5 spot.
""We have competed well for three matches in a row now,"" Wisconsin head coach Patti Henderson said. ""Today we had a window, we were right there in four of the six singles matches.""
The 4-3 win over Penn State Saturday was clinched by Nusslock's 6-7 (7-3), 7-5, 7-5 thriller against the Nittany Lions' Andreea Niculescu.
""I was so focused on the match that everything around me was a blur,"" an exhausted Nusslock said. ""I was just tying to hang in there for the team. I just wanted to hang in there and keep banging. My mindset was that if I could stay in the match then good things might happen.""
The pairings of Beck and Caiti and Carpenter and Jobe won the doubles point for UW, while victories for Caiti, Beck, and Nusslock in the top three slots pushed the Badgers' record to 16-1 in the all-time series with Penn State.
—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.\
