The University of Wisconsin men’s tennis team (5-4) bounced back from a tough road trip with a resounding 6-1 victory over in-state rival Marquette (5-2) on Friday at Nielsen Tennis Stadium. The Badgers dominated the match from the start, taking the doubles point early and then sweeping the first four singles matches to clinch the win.
“We hung in there and got it done,” head coach Danny Westerman to UWBadgers.com. “I was very pleased with tonight.”
Josef Dodridge and Osgar O’Hoisin got the team off to a hot start with a 6-3 win over Alvaro Verdu and Brett Meyers, but the Golden Eagles rebounded with Greg Anderson and Luis Heredia swiping a 6-4 victory from Chema Carranza and Chase Colton. The doubles point came down to the final match, pitting Daniel Soyfer and Lamar Remy against Marquette’s Luke Smrek and Scott Christian. It was a close fight throughout, as Smrek and Christian fought back from a 5-4 deficit and two match points to force a tiebreaker. The duo ultimately came up short though, as Soyfer and Remy outlasted them 7-5 to win the match 7-6 and the doubles point overall
The singles side was not nearly as close, however. Wisconsin won five of the first six sets overall and never looked back, with Soyfer, O’Hoisin and Jesper Freimuth all closing out their matches in straight sets to give the Badgers the 4-0 tally they needed to win. Josef Dodridge also defeated Smrek 6-1 6-3. Colton dropped his match against Brett Meyers 6-2 6-4 and Chema Carranza beat Alvaro Verdu 6-2 7-6.
The Badgers next play Minnesota this Saturday in Minneapolis, which marks the beginning of their Big Ten Conference schedule.
