The No. 45 UW men's tennis team will hit the road this weekend with two conference matches against Iowa and No. 36 Minnesota.
The Badgers (3-4 Big Ten, 11-9 overall) split a pair of Big Ten home matches last weekend, dropping then-No. 71 Indiana 5-2 on Saturday and following up with a hard-fought 6-1 loss against No. 2 Ohio State.
Despite the defeat, Badgers head coach Greg Van Emburgh was encouraged by the team's play on Sunday, and knows that his team can go out and compete with anyone in the Big Ten.
""We've lost a couple of close ones this year,"" Van Emburgh said. ""We've had some 4-3 matches where it really just didn't work out for us""
UW freshman Moritz Baumann, playing at No. 1 singles for the first time, scored the lone point for the Badgers with a 6-4, 6-3 upset victory over No. 34 Devin Mullings of the Buckeyes to push his singles record to 13-4 on the spring season. Baumann's stellar play comes as no surprise to Van Emburgh.
""Moritz has made a major impact since he arrived here on campus, and we kind of knew that was going to happen,"" Van Emburgh said. ""He's real talented, he's into the team and his tennis, and we're getting good results from him.""
On Saturday, the Badgers will take on a Hawkeye team that has been wildly inconsistent this season. Even with winning streaks of three and four matches, the Hawkeyes (0-6, 7-9) have had a three-match losing streak as well as their current run of six consecutive losses. Iowa was taken out by Michigan State last Saturday and by Minnesota on Wednesday in two road contests.
The Gophers (3-3, 13-6) have lost three of their last four matches, but most recently defeated Iowa 4-3 on Wednesday.
""Obviously, it's a big weekend for us,"" Van Emburgh said. ""We have to take care of Saturday's match first, and just approach the weekend like we've been approaching every other weekend.""
""It's coming towards the tail-end of our season, so every match matters,"" he added.
The players feel that with a strong weekend and a win next Saturday against Michigan State, they will be in good position in the Big Ten Tournament to make a run.
""We just have to take care of business in the first round, and then hopefully have a chance at a team like Illinois,"" freshman Michael Dierberger said. ""We had a chance to beat them earlier in the season, so hopefully we just go out there and get revenge on them.""
Women to play pair of home matches
The UW women's tennis team (0-7 Big Ten, 4-13 overall) will play its final home matches of the season this weekend, taking on No. 57 Iowa on Saturday and No. 53 Minnesota on Sunday.
This weekend's matches will be the final home matches for seniors Caitlin Burke and Kaylan Caiati.
The Badgers enter the weekend following a convincing 6-1 victory over Florida Atlantic on April 3 in Boca Raton, Fla. The team snapped an eight-match losing streak with the victory.
""It was great to get the win, especially following back-to-back 4-3 losses,"" UW coach Patti Henderson said. ""I certainly sense confidence on the part of our players.""
Both the Hawkeyes (4-2, 8-8) and the Gophers (2-4, 9-8) are coming off of wins. Iowa defeated Michigan State last Sunday, while the Gophers captured consecutive conference wins over Penn State and the Spartans over the weekend.
The Badgers come into this weekend's matches having won three consecutive doubles points. Henderson feels that the Badgers can use this as a large boost of confidence early in the matches.
""What we're looking to do is try to carry that momentum from this past week of training into these three matches going into the Big Ten Tournament,"" Henderson said.
