Despite the successful return of junior Jeremy Sonkin to the lineup, the No. 35 UW men's tennis team was defeated 4-3 by No. 45 Northwestern (6-8 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) Saturday at Combe Tennis Center in Evanston, Ill.
The Badgers (7-2, 1-1) had a chance to win the match at 3-3 with junior Nolan Polley battling NU's Willy Lock at No. 1 singles. Polley won a tightly-contested first set 7-6 (1), but suffered a 6-1 second-set letdown. Despite a fine effort by the Lexington, Ky. native, Lock was able to hold on 6-4 in the third set to clinch the duel-match victory for the Wildcats.
Sonkin, who returned to the lineup after missing all but one duel match in the spring season with Achilles tendon and back injuries, defeated the Wildcats' Christian Tempke 6-2, 7-6 (8) at No. 2 singles.
The trio of UW freshman continued its success despite the team loss. No. 96 Moritz Baumann continued his dominance at the No. 3 singles spot, taking out Marc Dwyer 6-3, 6-2. Michael Dierberger improved his singles record to 5-1 on the season with a come-from-behind 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over NU's Juan Gomez at the No. 5 spot. Dierberger also teamed up with classmate Michael Muskievicz to take the lone doubles match for the Badgers, taking down Dwyer and Alex Sanborn 8-2 at the No. 2 position.
The Badgers look to rebound this Saturday as they will travel to West Lafayette, Ind., to take on undefeated Purdue (6-0, 1-0).
The injury-riddled UW women's tennis team dropped two Big Ten road matches this weekend, following up a 7-0 defeat at No. 30 Indiana (10-3, 1-0) on Saturday with a 7-0 loss at Ohio State (9-4, 1-0) on Sunday.
The Badgers (3-8, 0-3) have now lost six of their last seven duel matches since beginning the season 2-1. Wisconsin has suffered without its top singles player, senior Caitlin Burke, who is ranked 14th in the nation despite being out since early February.
On Saturday, UW received valiant efforts from its top two singles players. Senior Kaylan Caiati won the second set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (5) after dropping the first set 6-1, but could not complete the comeback effort, losing 10-8 in the third set to the Hoosiers' Alba Berdala at No. 1 singles. At the No. 2 slot, sophomore Liz Carpenter was unable to hold on after winning the first set, eventually losing 5-7, 7-6 (7), 1-0 (10-5) to IU's Laura McGaffigan, the younger sister of former UW standout Katie McGaffigan.
UW continues its conference road trip this Friday at Penn State.
—uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report
