While most Wisconsin students relaxed during their week off, the UW women's tennis team (0-7 Big Ten, 4-13 everall) was busy at work. The squad lost two hard-fought matches against Big Ten rivals Purdue and Illinois both by scores of 4-3, but redeemed themselves with a convincing 6-1 victory over Florida Atlantic.
The week began with a home matchup against Purdue at Nielsen Tennis Stadium. The Badgers started out strong with two impressive doubles victories. Senior Caitlin Burke and sophomore Liz Carpenter defeated the Boilermakers' Mallory Voelker and Brooke Beier, 8-3. Voelker and Beier were ranked No. 33 in the country at the time of the match. The Badgers' second pair of senior Kaylan Caiati and junior Nicole Beck also pulled out an 8-3 victory to clinch the doubles point for the match.
Despite earning their first point in Big Ten doubles competition, the Badgers were not able to capitalize, dropping the No. 4, 5 and 6 singles slots to seal a Boilermaker win.
One bright spot for the Badgers was the return of Burke to Wisconsin's singles rotation. UW head coach Patti Henderson was very pleased with her performance, an 8-6, 6-3 victory over Purdue's Voelker.
""[For Caitlin] to come back after being gone so long, that was the best first match in singles I've seen her play,"" Henderson said. ""She did a good job against Voelker; she played a good first match after being out for eight weeks.""
The next day in Madison, the Badgers faced another important Big Ten opponent, the Illinois Fighting Illini. UW once again captured the doubles point with victories by Burke/Carpenter and Caiati/Beck. The win by Burke and Carpenter gave them a 7-2 record in doubles competition on the season.
Burke continued her return to singles play with a dominant 6-1, 6-0 victory in the first singles slot. Junior Morgan Tuttle also won a hard-fought singles match in the sixth spot with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Illinois' Emily Wang. The rest of the Badgers could not finish in their singles matches and UW lost by a score of 4-3.
After their weekend homestand, the Badgers traveled to sunny Boca Raton, Fla. for a training program and a matchup against Florida Atlantic. The Badgers looked strong, losing only one match at the No. 5 singles spot. In their wins, UW needed only one extra set to pull out a singles victory. Burke had another magnificent performance with a 6-2, 6-1 wins over FAU's Claudia Kecht. Burke is currently ranked No. 23 in the latest FILA Collegiate Tennis Rankings.
This weekend, Wisconsin's spring season winds down with its last two home matches of the season against Iowa and Minnesota.
—uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report
