After squeezing out a tight quarterfinal victory over Minnesota Friday, the No. 34 UW men's tennis team was defeated 4-1 by No. 15 Illinois in a semifinal match Saturday at the Big Ten Tournament in Iowa City, Iowa.
The No. 2 seeded Badgers defeated the Fighting Illini 5-2 March 30 during the regular season. However, Illinois (18-7) took two of three doubles matches for the opening doubles point, and nabbed three of the first four singles contests to defeat UW (17-9).
The lone Badger victory came at the No. 3 singles slot, where Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Marek Michalicka, had dominated all season. Michalicka took down Marc Spicijaric of the Illini 7-5, 6-1 to push his overall record to 22-2 on the spring season.
Senior Nolan Polley and sophomore Moritz Baumann, who were both named All-Big Ten earlier in the week, upset the 11th-ranked doubles pair in the country at the No. 1 doubles position. They knocked off Illinois' Ryan Rowe and Billy Heiser 8-3. The win, however, was
not enough to salvage the doubles point.
Illinois was defeated 4-3 by No. 2 Ohio State, the tournament's top seed, in Sunday's championship match.
In Friday's quarterfinal match, the Badgers eked out a hard-fought 4-3 victory over the Golden Gophers (7-17).
With the score tied at 3-3, Badger senior Felipe Bellido clinched the match for UW with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Minnesota's Chi Pham at the No. 5 singles spot. The Lima, Peru, native pushed his overall record to 13-5 with the win. Bellido also scored a match-clinching victory on April 5 when the Badgers defeated Indiana 4-3 during the regular season in Bloomington.
The Badgers will find out this afternoon if they have been selected to compete in the NCAA Tournament. UW is all but assured a bid after finishing in a tie for second in the conference during the regular season and becoming a mainstay in the national rankings. The 64-team field will be announced live on ESPNews from 1 to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Women
The No. 73 UW women's tennis team was swept 4-0 by No. 30 Indiana Friday at the Big Ten Tournament in West Lafayette, Ind., one day after a 4-2 victory over No. 63 Michigan State.
The 11-seeded Badgers were unable to score a victory in doubles and were taken down in all three of their singles matches against third-seeded Indiana (20-6). The Hoosiers' Katya Zapadalova clinched the match with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory at the No. 2 singles slot over freshman Jessica Seyferth of the Badgers (10-14).
On Thursday, the Badgers fell behind 2-1 to the six-seeded Spartans before rallying to win their next three singles matches. Seyferth clinched the victory with a 6-0, 2-6, 6-0 win at the No. 3 singles position over Manon Noe of Michigan State (12-13). Junior Elizabeth Carpenter and sophomore Katya Mirnova also notched singles victories for UW.
The Badgers also defeated the Spartans in the last match of the regular season, grinding out a 5-2 win on April 20 in Madison.
UW will find out if it is selected to compete in the NCAA Tournament Tuesday afternoon between 1 and 1:30 p.m. live on ESPNews.
