This weekend the UW men’s tennis team will host the Spartans of Michigan State, followed by the Wolverines of Michigan. These two matches will mark the end of the regular season before the start of the Big Ten tournament.
The Badgers have a current record of 7-12 overall and 2-6 in the Big Ten conference. Reflecting back on the team’s overall performance, head coach Pat Klingelhoets states that it could’ve gone better but due to a serious of injuries it has caused the team to struggle throughout the season.
“As far as our year, it certainly hasn’t gone as well as we expected,” Klingelhoets said. “We started out pretty well. We really felt that we had six solid players, and were headed for a pretty good year. Unfortunately after six matches one of our players broke his arm and has been out for the rest of the year.”
Despite the list of injuries, the Big Ten conference has consistently proven to be tough competition and this year many conference teams are nationally ranked. Against No. 1 Illinois, the Badgers put up a good fight but were unable to come away with the upset. Illinois has set a national record-winning streak at 55 matches.
“There are a lot of teams that are making big jumps in the Big Ten. If we are going to keep pace, we are going to have to get better,” Klingelhoets said. “So we’re still feeling that we’re playing pretty well, we lost a couple of matches that we felt that we really didn’t play as well as we could have. But on the other hand we’ve competed extremely well with some of the best teams in the country.”
The team will look to capitalize at the end of the season, looking toward the No. 1 doubles spot held by David Hippee and Alex Kasarov for strong performance. Coach Klingelhoets is confident in his team going into the Big Ten tournament.
“So we’ve got the two matches this weekend with Michigan and Michigan State. They’re certainly teams that we can beat,” he said. “What we need to do is get out and win those two matches. If things fall for us, we hope we could still possibly get a six seed going into the Big Ten tournament and that would give us a pretty decent draw coming in.”
The No. 57 Spartans of Michigan State have a record of 14-12 overall and 1-7 in the Big Ten. Right now the Badgers sit only one spot ahead of the Spartans in Big Ten standings. This weekend could determine who sits in the last spot. Michigan State enters the weekend after a pair of loses to No. 1 Illinois and No. 68 Purdue.
At the No. 1 doubles spot is junior Andrew Formanczyk and senior Chris Mitchell. Formanczyk also holds the No. 1 singles spot followed by junior Cameron Marshall at the No. 2 spot.
The No. 53 Wolverines (11-8, 2-6) will enter this weekend’s match after suffering a loss to Illinois as well. Leading Michigan is No. 1 singles player Anthony Jackson, who is followed by Brian Hung at the No. 2 spot. Hung is coming off a victory over No. 30 Phil Stolt of the Fighting Illini. The Wolverines are also strong in the doubles department, winning the doubles point from 11 of their 19 opponents this season. Ryan Heller and Brian Hung hold the No. 1 doubles spot.
This weekend the Badgers hope to break their three-match losing streak in order to gain momentum going into the Big Ten tournament.
