The Wisconsin men's tennis team ended its regular season last weekend with a 5-2 upset loss to Penn State and a shutout loss to Big Ten regular-season champions Ohio State on the road.
The No. 65-ranked Nittany Lions (4-6 Big Ten, 13-12 overall) took control early in Saturday's meet, sweeping the doubles bouts for an early 1-0 lead. The Lions took No. 2 in a quick 8-2 decision, but the Badgers' No. 19 duo of junior Moritz Baumann and sophomore Marek Michalicka fought until freshman Jason Lee and senior Adam Slagter earned a late break to secure the point with a 9-7 victory. Even with the decision, senior Michael Muskievicz and junior Michael Dierberger fought on into a tiebreak at No. 3 but also fell 9-8 (2).
In singles, the Lions' offensive continued to push the No. 30 Badgers and extended their lead to 2-0 with junior Guillaume St-Maurice's straight-set 6-3, 6-3 win over Muskievicz at No. 5. The Badgers earned their only points of the afternoon at No. 2 and 3 with contributions from Michalicka, who dismissed Slagter 6-2, 6-3 and freshman Patrick Pohlmann, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Lee.
Even after the Lions secured the team's victory, the Badgers suffered a difficult blow at No. 1, where senior Brendan Lynch brought No. 28 Baumann's undefeated season to a screeching halt in the last match of the afternoon. Lynch took the first set by only two points in a tiebreak decision, and Baumann rallied to take the second, 6-4. The two played a tiebreak to 10 for the match where Lynch edged out Baumann 7-6 (5), 4-6, 1-0 (10-4).
With the win, Penn State improves to 5-15 against Wisconsin and moves on to the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 7 seed, where they will face Purdue Thursday.
The Badgers moved on to face Ohio State Sunday, where the No. 2 Buckeyes (10-0, 28-1) refused to concede a point and ended Wisconsin's season with a 7-0 loss.
The Buckeyes secured the early lead with victories at No. 2 and 3, but Baumann and Michalicka defended the No. 1 position and downed the No. 85 pair of Matt Allare and Justin Kronauge 8-6.
Armed with ranked players in five of the six singles positions, the deep Buckeyes devastated the Badger lineup that played without Baumann. Ohio State gave up only seven games total in the first six sets and then cleaned up with straight-set victories across the board to finish with a perfect 10-0 conference record and the Big Ten regular-season championship.
Wisconsin finished its regular season 4-6 Big Ten and 15-9 overall, and will enter the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 8 seed, where the Badgers will face Iowa Thursday morning.
—uwbadgers.com and ohiostatebuckeyes.com contributed to this report.
