After an upsetting 4-3 loss to Northwestern Saturday, the Wisconsin men's tennis team improved to 3-3 in the Big Ten with a 7-0 shutout victory over Purdue Sunday.
The No. 58 Wildcats (3-3 Big Ten, 15-6 overall) pulled out an early lead with two doubles victories for the point. UW sophomore Peter Marrack and freshman Patrick Pohlmann fell first at No. 3, 8-5 to Wildcat opponents sophomore Andrew McCarthy and graduate student Alexander Thams before Wisconsin juniors Michael Muskievicz and Luke Rassow-Kantor dropped their match to give Northwestern the edge by only a break at No. 2.
Although the point belonged to Northwestern, the No. 15 Wisconsin pair of junior Moritz Baumann and sophomore Marek Michalicka came from behind, winning four straight games to take their own match 8-6.
Wisconsin leveled the match quickly in singles play as No. 31 Baumann slid comfortably to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 101 senior Marc Dwyer. At No. 4 and 6 Northwestern claimed Rassow-Kantor and Muskievicz to regain the lead, and Pohlmann added one for Wisconsin with his straight set victory over German countryman freshman Tobias Reitz.
Michalicka came through for Wisconsin with a win at No. 2, collecting his first set by only mini break 7-6 (5) and then his second outright 6-4 to once again tie the teams at 3-3.
The win came down to the result at No. 5, where Marrack won his first set 7-5 but Northwestern junior Alex Sanborn overpowered him in the second 6-0. Sanborn persevered in the third with a break to claim the match 6-4 and dismiss the Badgers.
Sunday, the Badgers moved on to Purdue and delivered an outstanding performance, handing the Boilermakers (0-5, 6-11) their second shutout of the season.
The Badgers' assault began in doubles, when Baumann and Michalicka made a powerful statement with an 8-2 victory over junior Slavko Bijelica and senior Griff Nienberg at No. 1. Rassow-Kantor paired once again with Pohlmann to tally the Badgers' second win and guarantee the 1-0 lead.
Purdue, which also lost to Northwestern this weekend, looked to regroup in singles but couldn't hold off the Badger onslaught. Pohlmann struck first with an easy 6-2, 6-1 victory over sophomore Eric Ramos at No. 1, and Baumann followed at No. 1, extending his undefeated campaign to 20-0 with another straight set victory.
Michalicka delivered the final blow, downing junior Branko Kuzmanovic in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 and securing the Badgers' win 4-0.
Even with the win, the relentless Badgers tallied three additional wins from junior Michael Dierberger, Muskievicz and Marrack. With the win, Wisconsin extended its streak against the Boilermakers to seven and evened its Big Ten record at 3-3.
Next weekend, the Badgers return home to host No. 64 Iowa (3-3, 11-5) and No. 33 Minnesota (4-2, 15-5) Saturday and Sunday at Nielsen Tennis Stadium. Matches start at noon both days.
—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
