Despite a promising start, the No. 38 ranked Wisconsin men's tennis team fell to the No. 42 Louisville (6-1 overall) Sunday afternoon 4-3 in a heart-wrenching upset at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
The meet lasted well over three hours and was determined in the last minutes when the Cardinals took the last singles match in play.
We knew it was going to be 4-3 either way,"" said assistant coach Evan Austin of Sunday's meet. ""I think that they just did a little better job [in singles No.] 1 through 6 kind of making every match a war.""
In barely an hour of play, the Badgers put down all three doubles opponents in a promising start to the disappointing meet. With an easy 8-3 victory early on from No. 3 pair junior Luke Rassow-Kantor and freshman Patrick Pohlmann it was the steady play of juniors Michael Dierberger and Michael Muskievicz that secured the doubles point. The pair surrendered only one service game to Louisville senior Robert Rotary and sophomore Alejandro Calamari, upsetting the nationally ranked No. 44 pair by 8-5.
Although the doubles outcome was already set, at the No. 1 position UW sophomore Marek Michalicka and junior Moritz Baumann also won their match, improving to a 6-0 season record together. Wisconsin didn't get a look at a break point until 5-4, and it took another three points for the duo to capitalize with a Cardinal double fault. They came back to do it again at 7-4 and after another three deuces converted on another breakpoint to take the match 8-4.
Moving into singles play, things changed quickly for Wisconsin, as four of six Badgers dropped their first sets to Cardinal opponents. Badgers Rassow-Kantor, Dierberger and sophomore Peter Marrack fell quickly in straight sets, while Pohlmann took his match with a decisive score of 6-1, 6-1 and keeping the Badgers close to the Cardinals at 3-2 for the meet.
At the No. 1 and 2 positions however, play heated up, pushing Michalicka and Baumann into decisive third sets.
Baumann played a clean first set, exchanging breaks with Louisville's Simon Childs before breaking him again to take the set. The nationally ranked No. 117 player faltered however, dropping the second 6-2 to No. 65 Childs.
""I was feeling really comfortable in the first set so I won that pretty easy,"" Baumann said afterward. ""I had problems in the second, so I lost a little bit of my energy, I think. And then it's hard to back in the third, to get fired up again, to get the energy going.""
But Baumann dug deep in the third, and at four games all Baumann made an unmistakable statement, breaking Childs at love to regain the lead at 5-4, serve out the match and level the meet at three all.
With five singles decided, all the eyes fell to the duel at the No. 1 position between Michalicka and Louisville sophomore Austen Childs. Childs broke Michalicka in his first service game and set the tone for the set, which he took by two unanswered breaks and a score of 6-3. Michalicka rallied to take the second set by 6-2, but in a physical third set, the pair exchanged more breaks than holds, and Childs bested the No. 36 ranked player 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
""They had a couple of matches where they cruised through and it gave them the momentum and I think that ended up being really the difference,"" Austin said of the close outcome. ""If we had maybe done a little better job, you know, all the way down the line and making those matches wars, maybe that ends up being 4-3 our way.""
Baumann remains the only Badger maintaining an undefeated singles record but reflected similarly, saying that it means less without the team fairing similarly.
""I feel really comfortable on the court but it doesn't really matter how I play. If the team loses it still feels like a loss.""
With Sunday's loss the Badgers fell to a season record of 6-2 and began a two-week break before they take on their next opponent, Wake Forest (4-2), Sunday, Feb. 22, back at Nielsen Stadium.
