The Wisconsin men’s tennis team broke a nine-game losing streak Saturday afternoon with a 5-2 victory over Iowa. The Badgers dominated the singles matches, losing just two of the singles.
“I feel good for the guys,” head coach Pat Klingelhoets said. “We’ve been playing alright, but we’ve had a lot of good teams, and we have a pretty young team. Hopefully this win will get us going for the rest of the year.”
Doubles play began with juniors Alex Kasarov and David Hippee defeating Stuart Waters and Hunter Skugman 9-7. The Wisconsin duo is ranked 30th in the nation with a 13-2 overall record.
“We knew we could play good doubles, this season everything has just come along,” Kasarov said. “Our goal is to get into the NCAA tournament in May. I think we have a pretty good chance for that.”
Junior Scott Green and frosh Mark Weining followed up with a 9-8 (10) victory over Johan Bergenas and Tres Jones. Senior captain Blake Baratz and frosh Ward Bortz finished up 9-7 over Iowa’s Pete Rose and Chaitu Malempati.
The Badgers continued to play strong in singles. Hippee took down Skugman at the No. 2 spot 7-6 (6), 6-1. Baratz won over Rose after a long No. 3 competition 6-2, 1-6, 6-4. Bortz defeated Malempati at No. 5 2-6, 6-1, 6-4. Weinig followed through at No. 6 with a 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 victory over Ross.
Klingelhoets commented, “hopefully we can win another three or four matches here and get a pretty good seed in the Big Ten tournament.”
However tides turned for the team yesterday afternoon as it was defeated 6-1 by No. 12 Minnesota. After the victory against Iowa, the Badgers fell into a familiar pattern of winning the doubles point and falling short in singles.
In doubles, Kasarov and Hippee took the No. 1 spot 9-8 against Minnesota’s Clay Estes and Thomas Haug. The win makes the 30th ranked duo’s overall record 14-2. At the No. 2, junior Scott Green and Weinig fell short to Avery Ticer and Eric Robertson 8-5. Baratz and Bortz dominated Aleksey Zharinov and Chris Wettengel 8-2 at the No. 3.
Wisconsin’s success did not continue in the singles round, as Minnesota took every match. At the Kasarov fell short to Zharinov 7-6, 6-2. Hippee was defeated by Haug 6-3, 6-1. Baratz lost to Wettergel 6-1, 6-4. Green was stopped by Ticer 4-6, 6-3 (6-4). Bortz was defeated by Estes 6-2, 6-2. Weinig lost to Robertson 6-1, 6-1.
-compiled from staff reports