The No. 74 UW women's tennis team suffered a 4-3 loss to Penn State Sunday in its Big Ten dual opener at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
The Badgers (0-1 Big Ten, 3-6 overall) won two of the three doubles matches to seal the doubles point and take a 1-0 lead in the match. Junior Erin Jobe and sophomore Katya Mirnova cruised to an 8-1 triumph over Jenny Shular and Leyla Morzan of Penn State at the No. 3 slot.
At No. 1, the UW duo of junior Liz Carpenter and freshman Jessica Seyferth clinched the point with a 9-7 victory over Sarah Lotto and Katelyn Bevard of the Nittany Lions (1-1, 2-5).
In singles, the Badgers won two of the first four finished matches to jump out to a 3-2 lead, but were unable to hang on in the last two completed contests.
Carpenter and sophomore Emese Kardhordo were the winners for UW. Carpenter took out Bevard 7-5, 6-1 at the top spot, while Kardhordo took care of Shular in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.
In the decisive match, Badger senior Morgan Tuttle was unable to hang on, winning the first set but dropping the match in three sets to PSU's Lauren McCarthy 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 at No. 5 singles.
The lady Badgers have two weeks to prepare for their next match, a home contest against Missouri, March 2.
The Tigers (7-1) have won their last seven matches after losing their opening dual of the spring season. The Badgers' next conference match will be March 7 at No. 2 Northwestern.
The UW men's tennis team suffered its fourth and fifth straight defeats to ranked opponents on the road this past weekend, following a 5-2 loss to No. 61 Louisville Saturday with a 5-2 setback at No. 29 Vanderbilt Sunday afternoon.
Sunday, the Badgers (0-0 Big Ten, 4-5 overall) lost two doubles matches in a tiebreaker to go along with a trio of three-set singles defeats.
Senior Nolan Polley was victorious at the No. 2 spot, dismantling No. 79 Vijay Paul of the Commodores 6-1, 6-1. At No. 3 singles, freshman Marek Michalicka took down Vanderbilt's Nick Cromydas in straight sets, 7-6 (5), 6-1. Michalicka finished the weekend undefeated in singles play.
Michalicka and sophomore Luke Rassow-Kantor were the lone Badger players to capture singles victories Saturday. Rassow-Kantor outlasted the Louisville's Alejandro Calligari 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 at the No. 6 spot, while Michalicka took down Simon Childs 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 4 slot.
UW sophomores Moritz Baumann and Michael Dierberger seized an 8-4 win over Robert Rotaru and Pablo Camacho of Louisville at No. 2 doubles. However, the Cardinals took control of the doubles point by taking the other two doubles matches to get the first point of the match.
- uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report.
