The Wisconsin men’s tennis team came into play Sunday with a 2-0 record ready to face Ball State at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium. The 62nd ranked Cardinals came into town sporting a 2-3 record. Wisconsin tallied its first mark in the loss column this season, falling 4-3.
The loss drops the Badgers to 2-1 overall in the non-conference schedule.
The team got off to a slow start as all three doubles pairs fell. The No. 1 and No. 2 tandems both lost their first matches of the season. The No. 1 doubles pair of junior Alex Kasarov and senior co-captain David Hippie, ranked eighth in the nation, were upset in a close contest, falling 7-9.
Wisconsin’s No. 2 doubles team, consisting of sophomore Alex Conti and senior co-captain Scott Green, fell by a score of 6-8 to the Cardinals’ pair of Matt Laramore and Brad Rhodes.
Also falling by a 6-8 margin was the No. 3 doubles team of freshman Lachezar Kasarov and sophomore Ward Bortz. They were beaten by Ball State’s Klint Knable and Paul Newman. Losing the doubles point put the Badgers in a tough hole, which proved too difficult to climb out of.
“I’m a little disappointed in our doubles. We have very good doubles, and we just came out a little flat,” UW head coach Pat Klingelhoets said. “I mean their doubles are good, but we should be able to handle doubles and we didn’t. And you know, as it turned out that was kind of a key thing. [It] gave them some momentum.”
Wisconsin fared slightly better in singles, but it was not enough to churn out the victory. The Badgers split with the Cardinals, three wins apiece. Hippee fell to Laramore by a score of 1-6, 4-6, while Conti fell in a close match 5-7, 3-6 to Mike Heule.
Lachezar Kasarov was also defeated by Newman 2-6, 4-6. Leading the way for Wisconsin was number one singles Alex Kasarov, as he defeated Baccarani 6-1, 7-6 (5). Also grabbing wins for the Badgers were Green and Bortz. Bortz defeated Knable 6-4, 6-3.
“Ward had a real solid match,” Klingelhoets said, “He figured out early in the match what he had to do to beat that guy, and Ward is a smart guy. When he gets zeroed in and gets focused and knows what he is going to do he is tough to beat. He played a real, real solid match.”
Green, meanwhile rallied from a 2-6, 1-4 hole to defeat Thompson 2-6, 7-5, 1-0 (5). The early deficit caused the senior co-captain to raise the level of his play.
“Nothing was working for the first set, and [Thompson] was playing well,” Green said. “I didn’t feel very comfortable out there, I needed to figure out a way to get a break. I needed to get something going. [I] didn’t have the momentum. It was just one long, big break, that got me a little fired up, and then I took it from there.”
The senior showed a lot of heart and great leadership ability in his comeback.
“For awhile I saw two of our other players lose, and I didn’t know what was going on [over] on the other side, but either way it was going to come down to this match,” he said. “So I wanted to keep a lot of balls in play, and make him beat me instead of beating myself.”
The Badgers head out on the road this weekend, as they travel to Western Michigan on Saturday, and face the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame on Sunday.
