In last weekend's Blue Gray Tennis Classic, the Wisconsin men's tennis team picked up two wins and a loss when it was ousted from the tournament by Alabama.
Coming off a rough Big Ten opener last weekend where UW fell to No. 29 after losing to Illinois and Indiana, the Badgers opened the 16-team tournament with a 4-2 victory over No. 75 Hawaii.
After Wisconsin took the early doubles point, No. 47 junior Moritz Baumann downed No. 75 sophomore Dennis Lajola quickly 6-2, 6-0 at No.1, and No. 37 sophomore Marek Michalicka made quick work of junior Andreas Weber 6-4, 6-3, before freshman Patrick Pohlmann secured the match with another singles victory at No. 3.
On the second day of the tournament, the Badgers fell to No. 24 Alabama 4-1 after a rocky doubles start. Wisconsin surrendered the doubles point and in singles play Baumann recorded the Badgers' only point for the meet with a 6-2, 7-6 (6-0) victory over No. 32 junior Saketh Myneni before Alabama clinched the match, improving to 14-2 overall. The Crimson Tide went on to the tournament finals, where they lost 4-2 to No. 4 Tennessee.
The Badgers exited the tournament Sunday on a high note, however, taking down No. 26 Notre Dame in a consolation match 4-3 for the second time in less than a month.
The No. 17 pair of Baumann and Michalicka avenged their loss three weeks ago and bested the No. 25 doubles pair of senior Brett Helgeson and sophomore Tyler Davis 8-6 before a win from the Dierberger and Muskievicz tandem secured the point.
A relentless Baumann began singles play with a victory over No. 22 Helgeson 6-2, 6-0 to maintain his pristine record and improve to 16-0 for the season. Sophomore Peter Marrack contributed the squad's third point at No. 5 before the Irish leveled the meet with wins at No. 2, 3 and 4. Finally it was Muskievicz that sent the Irish packing with a final victory over freshman Niall Fitzgerald 6-3, 6-1.
With Saturday's result, Notre Dame fell to 9-9, and Wisconsin improved to 11-5 overall (0-2 Big Ten) as they look to next weekend's matches at Nielsen against Michigan and Michigan State for their first Big Ten wins this season. The matches begin at 12 p.m. both Saturday March 28 and Sunday 29 and uwbadgers.com will have a live blog with all the action.
Women's Tennis
The Wisconsin women's tennis team had a tough spring break, falling to Big Ten opponents Indiana, Illinois and their final non-conference opponent South Florida, to drop to 5-10 overall, 0-3 Big Ten.
The No. 69 Badgers faced off against the No. 35 Hoosiers (9-6 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) last Friday and fell behind early, giving up the doubles point with losses from junior Katya Mirnova and sophomore Jessica Seyferth at No. 2 and freshmen Aleksandra Markovic and Dana Larsen at No.3.
In singles play, senior Liz Carpenter came out on top over Hoosier sophomore Katya Zapadalova 6-2, 6-2, while Seyferth contributed the Badgers' only other point with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over freshman Megan Matter.
Things looked better as the Badgers resumed play Sunday against another Big Ten foe No. 33 Illinois (11-3 overall, 2-1 Big Ten), eking out the doubles point with a tiebreak victory from freshman Emese Kardhordo and Markovic 9-8 (7-5). The Badgers, however, unraveled in singles and Illinois shut the women out to take the meet 6-1.
On Wednesday the women moved on to face unranked South Florida in sunny Tampa Bay and found themselves once again down 1-0 after doubles play with only a win at No. 2 from Kardhordo and Markovic. The Badgers continued to buckle under the Florida heat as Carpenter and Kardhordo fell at No. 1 and 5 before USF clinched the match as Iciri Rai downed Markovic in straight sets 6-2, 6-3. USF finished the Badgers 5-2.
Wisconsin will be back on the road next weekend in Michigan, where they will face two more Big Ten opponents at Michigan and Michigan State March 28 and 29.
—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
