Despite an upset at No. 1 singles, and valiant efforts at several spots, the No. 45 UW men's tennis team was unable to pull off an upset over No. 2 Ohio State (6-0 Big Ten, 20-1 overall), dropping a 6-1 match to the Buckeyes Sunday at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
""Our objective today was to come out and compete hard at all spots, and as the scores show, we did that today,"" head coach Greg Van Emburgh said. ""We had a tight match against one of the very top teams in the country.""
Freshman Moritz Baumann provided the highlight of the day for the Badgers (3-4, 11-9). Baumann took out No. 34 Devin Mullings at the No. 1 singles spot 6-4, 6-3. The defeat was only Mullings' fifth in 33 matches on the season.
Junior Nolan Polley nearly pulled off a huge upset at the No. 2 spot. However, after splitting the first two sets, and leading 5-0 in the third, No. 10 Steven Moneke charged back to tie the set at 6-6. Moneke then cruised in the tiebreaker 7-1 to take the match at 0-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1).
Despite being swept in doubles, the Badgers put up a fight at their top two spots. At No. 1, Polley and freshman Michael Dierberger nearly knocked off the No. 22 pair of Mullings and Chris Klingemann, but came up short in the tiebreaker to lose 9-8 (4). Baumann and senior captain Lachezar Kasarov also lost dropped their match 9-8 (2) against No. 31 Drew Eberly and Justin Kronauge at the No. 2 spot.
Junior Felipe Bellido had his 10-match singles unbeaten streak snapped at the No. 4 spot, dropping a 6-3, 6-3 match to No. 75 Klingemann.
On Saturday, the Badgers topped No. 71 Indiana 5-2 at home for their third conference victory on the year. After winning two of three matches to take the doubles point, the Badgers swept No. 3 through No. 6 singles for the final margin. The match was hard-fought, as four-of-six singles matches had to be decided in three sets.
Overall, the Badgers finished spring break with a 2-2 record. UW split a pair of matches in Texas, following 5-2 loss last Monday to No. 73 Southern Methodist with a decisive 5-2 win over Texas Christian.
The Badgers will hit the road this weekend for consecutive Big Ten matchups. The Badgers will head to Iowa on Saturday to ttake on the Hawkeyes, followed by a match in the Twin Cities against archrival No. 35 Minnesota Gophers.
—uwbadgers.com
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