The No. 39 UW men's tennis team dropped a trio of matches this past weekend in a field of powerhouses at the Blue Gray Tennis Invitational in Montgomery, Ala.
The Badgers (8-6 overall, 2-2 Big Ten) dropped two matches Friday against No. 27 Boise State and No. 34 Middle Tennessee State, as well as their final match on Saturday to No. 50 Louisville.
Friday morning, the Badgers fell behind quickly when the Broncos easily nabbed the doubles point, and lost the match 4-0 after dropping three singles matches. The remaining three matches did not finish.
Later that day, UW jumped out to a 3-1 lead on the Blue Raiders, but lost their final three matches for the defeat. Junior Nolan Polley was a bright spot for the Badgers in the match, upsetting No. 88 Marco Born of MTSU 6-4, 6-2 at the No. 2 singles spot. Freshman Michael Dierberger and junior Felipe Bellido were also victorious in the match for the Badgers, earning straight-set wins at the No. 5 and No. 6 singles spots, respectively.
Bellido earned his second victory of the tournament at the No. 6 spot with a 6-3, 6-1 triumph over Louisville's James McArthur. However, that wasn't enough as UW dropped another 4-3 heartbreaker on Saturday. The Badgers started the match by winning the doubles point, as Polley and freshman Moritz Baumann won 8-4 at the No. 1 spot, followed by a 9-7 victory at the No. 2 spot by senior captain Lachezar Kasarov and junior Jeremy Sonkin. Kasarov also captured a singles victory, defeating Louisville's Kenneth Nordheim 6-0, 7-6 at the No. 4 spot.
No. 7 Notre Dame won the tournament, defeating No. 14 Alabama 4-1 in the championship match on Sunday. The Fighting Irish defeated the Badgers 5-2 when the two schools faced off Feb. 11.
UW will look to snap its four-match losing streak this week as it takes on in-state rival Marquette this Wednesday at Nielsen Tennis Center, followed by a home conference match-up against No. 28 Michigan Saturday. The team will hit the road again over spring break, heading to Texas to take on No. 71 Texas Christian on April 3 and No. 66 Southern Methodist April 4.
