The No. 38 UW men's tennis team claimed fourth place in the Big Ten Saturday after sweeping Michigan State 7-0 on the outdoor courts of Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
""I think it's just a great way to end our home season,"" head coach Greg Van Emburgh said. ""I think they are a little stronger than what they showed today, but I think the important thing was our guys came out here and really took care of business.""
UW claimed the doubles point after winning two of the three matches. Freshman Moritz Baumann and senior Lachezar Kasarov of UW defeated John Allare and Nick Rinks of Michigan State 8-1. The duo of freshman Michael Muskievicz and junior Jeremy Sonkin also eased their way to victory by beating Spartans Jason Norville and Tyler Sauerbrey 8-1.
Michigan State notched their only victory of the entire match when their doubles team of Michael Flowers and Alex Forger upended UW freshman Michael Dierberger and junior Nolan Polley 8-4.
The Badgers continued their dominant play in the singles matches as no match went further than the first two sets.
Kasarov, playing in his final home match, defeated MSU's Norville 6-1, 6-3 in the No. 4 match.
""It's hard to comprehend how fast these four years went,"" Kasarov said. ""It feels really good, especially right now with having a great team around me and having a chance to do great things in the postseason.""
Freshman sensation Moritz Baumann gave UW a point after dominating MSU's Alex Forger in the No. 1 match 6-1, 6-1.
UW juniors Nolan Polley and Fellipe Bellido won their matches convincingly 6-4, 6-2 and 6-3, 6-1 respectively. UW sophomore Gian Hodgson also dominated his opponent winning the match 6-4, 6-0.
The No. 2 match featuring Sonkin and MSU's John Allare proved to be the most intriguing match of the day. As all of the other matches were complete, Sonkin and Allare were still battling for the first set.
After jumping out to a 5-2 set lead, Sonkin could not find a way to close out MSU's Allare as he came back and tied the set at 5-5. Sonkin held serve and then broke Allare to claim the 7-5 set win.
Sonkin brought all of the momentum into the second set and claimed the match by winning the set 6-1.
""I struggled a lot in the first. John [Allare] was playing a lot of solid tennis, just keeping a lot of balls in play,"" Sonkin said. ""I was a little erratic going for a little too much too early, but I settled down in the second set and hit my shots and was more patient.""
UW hopes to carry this momentum into next week's Big Ten Tournament as they are playing their best tennis when it matters most.
""We won our last three Big Ten matches and we are really gaining momentum,"" Kasarov said. ""[We are] basically reaching our highest point which is perfect timing for us going to the Big Ten Tournament and hopefully going deep in the NCAA tournament as well.""
