After failing to win a match against No. 6 Vanderbilt in the first round and falling 6-1 to No. 34 Harvard in Friday consolation play, the No. 48 Wisconsin women’s tennis team rebounded in dramatic fashion to upset No. 24 New Mexico in the final consolation round of the USTA/ITA National Women’s Team Indoor Championship Saturday.
Losing the morning doubles point and seeing No. 53 Katie McGaffigan and Nicole Beck finish the first two singles matches with losses, the Badgers trailed New Mexico 0-3 and were in danger of establishing a three-year losing streak in the national amateur tournament. But convincing wins from Chelsea Nusslock and Kaylan Caiati, coupled with a tense third-set tie-break victory by Lindsay Martin, set the stage for Caitlin Burke to claim the final frame of her match and propel the underdog Badgers to a 4-3 upset over the Lobos.
“It feels great, obviously, to win,” head coach Patti Henderson said after the New Mexico match. “It feels great … to show everyone on the team and to show themselves that … we can do it. And this is what it’s going to require to do that, day in and day out.”
For the Badgers, the tournament’s only two-time winner was Caiati, who defeated Harvard’s Eva Wang 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-2 in Friday play, and then made quick work of New Mexico’s Lucy Scott 6-4, 6-0 the following day.
“The beautiful thing is you got Kaylan Caiati, who steps up and just does her thing, takes care of business,” Henderson said.
Caiati’s win Saturday was preceded by a dramatic third-flight match where Martin took opponent Michelle Heidbrink into a final set tie-break, fighting her way to a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(3) victory that lent Wisconsin its first point of the day. The match was highlighted by a tiebreak controversy where Heidbrink called a shot out only to be overruled from the chair. The New Mexico player’s ensuing tantrum garnered the attention of a member of the Lobos’ coaching staff and multiple tournament officials.
“I tried to stay calm,” Martin said. “Usually when the other person gets a little feisty out there, it usually gets me going a little bit more too. So it actually helped me, I think. It kind of stirred up a little fire inside.”
By the time the dust had cleared from Martin’s match, freshman Nusslock was well on her way to dispatching of Tiffany Robertson 6-3, 6-0. That win would shift all eyes to Burke’s second-flight showdown with No. 66 Iva Gersic.
After a tightly contested second-set tiebreak, No. 99 Burke handled a tired and possibly injured Gersic in the third frame, claiming the match 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 and propelling the Badgers to victory on the day. Gersic, who clutched her side throughout the match, required a medical timeout during the second set.
While Burke would emerge as the hero, the sophomore was naíve to the deciding nature of her match — having taken the court when the Badgers were still winless.
“I did not actually [know],” Burke said. “I didn’t even know for a few minutes after, until they told me.”
Wisconsin’s top seed McGaffigan suffered a tough pair of matches, losing to No. 38 Audra Falk of Vanderbilt 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 and falling to Harvard’s Elsa O’Riain 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-0, before taking a 4-1 lead in the first set of play against the Lobos’ Maja Kovacek Saturday. But New Mexico’s first-flight entry quickly found a groove, going on to defeat McGaffigan 6-4, 6-0.
“Today was a pretty rough match,” McGaffigan said. “I started off up 4-1, then she caught on fire. She’s hitting amazing. And she played really well, so [there was] not a whole lot I could do about it.”
Wisconsin now looks ahead to a Big Ten showdown with No. 5 Northwestern, who lost to unseeded Georgia in the first round of this weekend’s tournament. The Badgers will take on the Wildcats Feb. 12 at the Nielson Tennis Center in Madison.
“They’re a tough team, but they’re beatable,” Beck said.
