SPORTS
Badgers look to exorcise Blue Demons at Nielsen
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Also by Dave McGrath:
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- DePaul treks to Madison (March 3, 2006)
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by Dave McGrath
Tuesday, February 1, 2005
The University of Wisconsin men’s tennis team will welcome the DePaul Blue Demons to the Nielsen Tennis Stadium today for UW’s final tune-up before its first Big Ten matchup of the year. The Badgers (1-2, 0-0) hope that many of the woes that have shown up in the past couple of dual meets will clear up against a DePaul team that has started off 3-4 this season in its non-conference slate.
The Badgers will have history on their side in the 15th all-time meeting between the two schools, as Wisconsin has won 13 of 14 previous meetings, including four in a row. However, UW will not simply rely on past successes. The Badgers will make a multitude of line-up changes for the meet, which was moved up to today after being originally scheduled for Wednesday.
The Badgers will continue to have senior Alex Kasarov and freshman Jeremy Sonkin at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and will also keep freshman Elliot Bisnow playing at the No. 3 position. The bottom half of the Badger line-up will have a major shake-up however, as sophomore Lachezar Kasarov will move a spot up to No. 4 and Wisconsin will start junior Jordan Raemisch and freshman Felipe Bellido.
The shake-up was made in hopes of finding more consistency and production from the singles line-up as a whole.
“We aren’t real happy with our line-up top to bottom so far. We don’t feel like we have found the line-up,” head coach Pat Klingelhoets said. “In order to be successful this year, we gotta get everybody in a spot where they feel that they have a good chance to win and where they are going to be competitive every time out. Hopefully that is going to be a line-up that’s going to get it done for us.”
DePaul has thus far had a feast or famine season, either winning in a shutout 7-0 or losing altogether. The inconsistent Blue Demons also come in to Madison on the heels of a loss and are looking to get their act together before reaching conference play.
The two teams have had a common opponent this year, as both have played Western Michigan University, both falling 4-3. That loss is one that the Badgers would like to have back, as the team struggled in doubles play and in several singles matches, which have sparked the line-up changes.
“We are looking for some improvement. We had some guys that just really did not play the way that they are capable of on Saturday. They know it and are disappointed, so hopefully they will come out tomorrow and win and get back to feeling good about themselves,” Klingelhoets said.
The Badgers are anxious to see not only how the new players perform, but also how the team responds after a tough loss to Western Michigan and heading into the Big Ten season kickoff.
“We are very excited. We feel like every match is a chance for us to really learn something about our guys and to get them more and more experience, preparing for the Big Ten season,” Klingelhoets said. “We would much rather play in match than practice.”
Klingelhoets believes that this will be a stiff test for the Badgers and hopes that the team will take the opportunity to enter conference play on a positive note.
“This will be a pretty good test. DePaul has a better team than they have had for a number of years. They have played some people pretty close this year and it should be a pretty good battle,” Klingelhoets said. “We certainly hope our guys come out and play great and polish them off, but you don’t know. They have a team that is definitely capable of beating us if we are not ready.”
