After earning an encouraging 5-2 win over Iowa Saturday afternoon, the Wisconsin men's tennis team fell to Minnesota 4-3 in four and a half hours of agonizing and physical play at their last home match of the season.
With the meet leveled at 3-all, both the No. 29 Badgers (4-4 Big Ten, 15-7 overall) and the No. 33 Gophers (5-3, 16-6) looked to the battle at No. 2 singles between Wisconsin's sophomore No. 47 Marek Michalicka and sophomore Tobias Wernet.
In the decisive third set, Michalicka was up a break at 4-3 but struggled with severe cramping as he tried to close out the set. He took his time and paced play carefully, but the impaired Michalicka could not hold off Wernet, who capitalized on the opportunity and won the next three games to move up 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, pushing the Gophers one point past the Badgers in an emotional upset.
""I was a little upset and I felt bad for Marek because actually he's really in shape. It was bad luck for us today,"" freshman Patrick Pohlmann said.
""That can happen to all of us,"" Baumann added. ""We should just forget about it. We still have a lot of matches ahead of us, we'll play on the road next week, and we have the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAAs. So of course it's a tough loss, but we should just be positive and think about the next matches.""
The Badgers started strong in doubles, winning the point in tense play between the border rivals. The No. 15-ranked duo of junior Moritz Baumann and Michalicka aggressively broke freshman Ishay Hadash and sophomore Sebastian Gallego early and continued to push to a clean 8-3 victory.
Despite a brief injury scare that had Pohlmann on the ground with a hurt ankle, he and junior Luke Rassow-Kantor showed no signs of letting up and took out their opponents 8-2 to secure the early one-point advantage for Wisconsin.
The Gophers were quick to answer in singles with wins at No. 5 and 6, but their lead was short lived as No. 31 Baumann delivered yet another authoritative win for the Badgers, extending his streak to 22-0 in a contentious three-set victory.
""I'm undefeated so far so I have a lot of confidence, and that's big in tennis when you have a lot of confidence in the big situations,"" Baumann said.
At No. 4, Sophomore Peter Marrack fell as Pohlmann and Michalicka advanced to third sets. Pohlmann won his first seven games against Gallego, but the Gopher recovered to claim the second set. In the third, the two struggled more to hold than break, but Pohlmann steadied and bested Gallego.
""[Gallego] played really even so I just made, I think, important points in the game, like 30-all I made it to 40-30 or a deuce,"" said Pohlmann, who also struggled with minor cramping. ""I was a little luckier I think.""
The Badgers dismissed No. 58 Iowa (3-5, 11-7) Saturday with a 5-2 victory to start the weekend.
Pohlmann and Rassow-Kantor stepped up first at No. 3 doubles and devastated their Hawkeye opponents in an 8-1 victory before senior Michael Muskievicz and junior Michael Dierberger closed out the point with their own 8-5 victory at No. 2.
Opening singles play, a lively Pohlmann cruised to another straight-set victory over sophomore Nikita Zotov 6-1, 6-3. Marrack followed, turning in a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Iowa freshman Will Vasos before Baumann dealt the final blow to the Hawkeyes, removing fall Big Ten Singles champion senior Christian Bierich 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 for the meet at 4-1.
Next weekend, the Badgers will wrap up their regular season on the road against No. 61 Penn State (3-5, 10-11) and Big Ten leader No. 3 Ohio State (8-0, 25-1).
