The No. 29 UW men's tennis team split a pair of conference road matches this past weekend, dropping Purdue (1-2 Big Ten, 7-2 overall) 6-1 on Saturday and following that with a 5-2 loss at No. 5 Illinois (3-0, 10-3) on Sunday.
Saturday, the Badgers (2-2, 8-3) began the match by taking two of three doubles matches to nab the first point. UW proceeded to win five of its six singles matches with three victories coming in the third set. Freshmen Moritz Baumann and Michael Dierberger were successful in straight sets.
Despite the margin of victory, the Boilermakers were not an easy out, according to UW coach Greg Van Emburgh.
""The final score doesn't reflect how tough this match was,"" Van Emburgh said. ""They were ready to go in singles and won the first set in four of the six matches. We had our backs against the wall and showed a lot of heart in the way we were able to come back.""
The Badgers were also impressive on Sunday despite the loss. After losing at No. 1 singles on Saturday, junior Jeremy Sonkin recovered quite nicely on Sunday, recording an upset at No. 2 singles by knocking off No. 8 Ryan Rowe of the Fighting Illini 7-6 (4), 6-2. Additionally, junior Felipe Bellido registered a 6-3, 6-1 triumph at No. 6 singles over Illinois' Jordan Knue.
Baumann and Dierberger, two freshmen who have been exceptional in the spring season thus far, both pushed their matches into a third set. Baumann fought back from a first-set loss in a tiebreaker at No. 3 singles, cruising to a 6-2 second-set victory. However, the Inzlingen, Germany native was unable to grab the momentum, dropping the third set 6-2. Dierberger won the first set in his match at the No. 5 spot, but was unable to hang on, dropping a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 match to Brandon Davis.
The Badgers will head to Montgomery, Ala. this Thursday through Sunday for the Blue-Gray Invitational.
Women's tennis
The UW women's tennis team suffered back-to-back conference road defeats, losing to Penn State (1-1, 5-6) 5-2 on Friday and No. 31 Michigan (1-1, 5-5) 7-0 on Saturday.
The Badgers (0-5, 3-10) nearly pulled out a win on Friday, dropping two matches in three sets after winning two matches in straight sets. Senior Kaylan Caiati pulled out a 6-2, 6-1 victory at No. 1 singles over Andrea Niculescu of the Nittany Lions. At the No. 2 spot, sophomore Liz Carpenter came through with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Penn State's Sasha Abraham.
Senior Caitlin Burke returned to the lineup for the first time since Feb. 1 at No. 2 doubles. She and junior Nicole Beck were unsuccessful, however, dropping the match 8-4 to Sarah Lotto and Jenny Shular. On Saturday, the UW duo of junior Chelsea Nusslock and freshman Kim Roberts defeated the Wolverines' Elizabeth Exon and Allie Shafner at No. 3 doubles by a score of 8-3 for the Badgers' lone victory.
The Badgers return to action next week when they take on No. 2 Notre Dame March 22 at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
