The No. 38 UW men's tennis team will seek its third consecutive win Saturday in its final regular season match against No. 74 Michigan State at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
The Badgers (5-4 Big Ten, 13-9 overall) return home after last weekend's successful conference road trip. The team followed up a 7-0 sweep of Iowa on Saturday with a stellar 5-2 victory over Minnesota.
In a match that UW coach Greg Van Emburgh called one of the best performances of the year, the Badgers swept the doubles point to begin the match up 1-0. They followed with four singles wins at the No. 2 through No. 5 spots to secure the victory.
With victories in four of the past five matches and the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments on the horizon, assistant coach Evan Austin knows that the Badgers are peaking at the right time.
""We went through a little bit of a tough period where we lost some close matches,"" Austin said. ""Now we've turned the tide a little bit and won some big matches as of late. I definitely think we're peaking and we've got to keep that up for the next month.""
The Spartans (2-6, 11-13) have shown that they can play with the Big Ten contenders. They've rattled off two straight victories, including a 4-3 upset over Penn State last Saturday. MSU is led by junior Nick Rinks who holds a No. 63 national ranking in singles, accompanied by a No. 23 doubles ranking with teammate Adam Monich.
The match will also be the last for senior captain Lachezar Kasarov. The Burgas, Bulgaria native has compiled an 11-10 singles record in dual matches this spring, playing mostly at the No. 3 and No. 4 spots. Most of his career highlights, however, have come in doubles. Most notably, he and his brother Alex, who graduated in 2005, upended the nation's top-ranked pair, Scott Green and Ross Wilson of Ohio State, 9-8 in the spring of 2005.
According to Van Emburgh, Kasarov's exceptional play is not just what he'll be remembered best for.
""He really just wants to succeed at whatever he's doing, whether it's academics or athletics,"" Van Emburgh said. ""You couldn't ask for a better guy to be your team captain. He'll put everybody else first before himself and those type of people are not easy to come by.""
Added Austin: ""We're trying to do some things that really haven't been done here before and he's been sort of the catalyst for us.""
With the kinds of things that the Badgers are capable of doing in the upcoming month, a humble Kasarov said that his four years of hard work have all been worth it.
""It's a great campus and a great university and I'm so glad I've been here for four years,"" Kasarov said. ""With the great group of guys on the team and a coaching staff like this, it's great every day to see the hard work pay off.""
Following the match against Michigan State, the Badgers will play in the Big Ten Tournament in West Lafayette, Ind. from April 26 to April 29. At their current spot, the Badgers would have the No. 5 seed and take on Penn State in the quarterfinals. The NCAA Tournament begins May 11.
""We all believe that if we get hot on a certain day, we can beat anybody in the country,"" Kasarov said. ""That's the key for our team.""
Women Head to Michigan State
The UW-Madsion women's tennis team will head to East Lansing, Mich. Saturday to take on Michigan State (1-7 Big Ten, 11-10 overall) for its final match of the regular season.
Despite losing during conference play, the Badgers (0-9, 4-15) have played their last four conference opponents tough, losing each match by a narrow 4-3 margin. Three of those four teams were ranked in the top 60 in the national rankings.
""We're this close,"" Henderson said. ""It's like every which way we can possibly have it come out that way, it's happened. We're ready to get a win.""
The last time the two teams met, the Badgers upset the Spartans 4-0 in the opening round of last season's Big Ten Tournament.
Following its match with the Spartans, the Badgers will head to Minneapolis for the Big Ten Tournament from April 26 to April 29.
