Six days after posting one of the biggest wins in UW history over then-No. 10 Miami, the men's tennis team lost 5-2 in a highly contested match against No. 9 Notre Dame Sunday at Nielsen Tennis Stadium. The Fighting Irish (6-1) handed UW its first loss of the season.
The Badgers (4-1) began the match on a high note, nabbing the doubles point by winning two of three matches. Junior Nolan Polley and freshman Moritz Baumann pulled off a huge upset by defeating the 11th-ranked Notre Dame duo of Ryan Keckley and Sheeva Parbhu 8-6 in the No. 1 slot. Junior Jeremy Sonkin and senior captain Lachezar Kasarov clinched the point at the No. 2 spot, defeating Notre Dame's Barry King and Brett Helgeson 8-5.
Junior Felipe Bellido captured the only singles victory on the day for UW, beating Andrew Roth 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 6 spot.
Two other singles matches took three sets to decide. Polley captured the first set, but was unable to hang on to the match, losing to Parbhu 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2. Kasarov also won the first set at No. 4, but ended up losing 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 to Keckley.
At No. 1 singles, Sonkin retired with a back injury down a set and 0-1 in the second to No. 14 Steven Bass. The Wheaton, Ill. native has been limited to just one full match this spring due to an Achilles tendon injury.
The Badgers' tough stretch continues this weekend, as they will host No. 54 Western Michigan Friday at 4 p.m. The team will then hold a double-header Sunday with its first Big Ten match against No. 50 Penn State at noon, followed by a 5:30 p.m. showdown with UW-Green Bay.
The injury-plagued women's tennis team continued to struggle without senior ace Caitlin Burke, losing back-to-back 7-0 matches against No. 6 Northwestern and DePaul this past weekend at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
Saturday, the Badgers (0-1 Big Ten, 2-5 overall) played their fourth consecutive opponent ranked in the top 20 nationally, and their third straight match with a modified lineup to adjust for injuries.
The Wildcats (1-0, 5-1) jumped out to a quick start by sweeping all three doubles matches to take the doubles point, and didn't look back. The Badgers were unable to take a set in all six singles matches and were forced to forfeit the No. 6 singles match due to its injury-riddled roster.
The Badgers did not fare much better Sunday in their loss to the Blue Demons (4-3). However, the matches were much more contested, as two singles matches needed a third set to decide the match. Sophomore Elizabeth Carpenter defeated DePaul's Beatrix Csordas 7-5 in the first set, but dropped the next two sets to lose the match at the No. 2 spot. At No. 4 singles, sophomore Erin Jobe also won her first set by a 6-4 count, but lost the last two sets 6-3, 10-6 to Kirsten Gambrell.
The Badgers return to action this Wednesday against in-state rival Marquette at 4 p.m. at Nielsen. UW will then play host to Princeton Sunday at 11 a.m. before starting a four-match Big Ten road stretch March 3.
—uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report.
