The No. 36-ranked Wisconsin women’s tennis team easily dispensed of Marquette Wednesday, winning every set of play en route to a 7-0 victory over the in-state rival. A newly finessed doubles lineup started the Badgers off on a high note, sweeping the day’s first point, and then all six singles matches went Wisconsin’s way, with the Golden Eagles never claiming more than four games.
“It was a good match for all of us throughout,” senior Katie McGaffigan said. “We swept them in doubles, so that gave us a good start going into the singles matches. And then everybody won in straight sets.”
Coach Patti Henderson grouped the team’s two freshmen, Nicole Beck and Chelsea Nusslock, together in the third doubles flight for the first time since official match play began this season. Filling Beck’s former position in the second flight was Kaylan Caiati.
“It went pretty well … It was good to see the communication across the board,” Henderson said, adding that the lineup is still subject to change. “We’ll still figure out what lineup will be used going into next weekend.”
For Caitlin Burke, whose perfect high school record (108-0) meant dealing Caiati her only three prep losses (106-3), the pairing marked a welcomed reunion.
“It was great because we haven’t played together probably since we were 16 or something,” Burke said. “We played together for probably four or five years in juniors and then split up here, so it was nice to play with her again.”
Caiati and Burke posted the day’s most impressive doubles score, beating Marquette’s Francina Bonnelly and Elsemieke Dokter 8-1.
Beck and Nusslock also had little trouble adjusting to the change, making quick work of Dominika Dabrowski and Erin Watkins 8-3.
“It was a lot of fun,” Nusslock said. “I think we played well together. [Beck] hit some really good volleys and really good serves and I think overall it was good.”
On the singles front, McGaffigan, playing out of the top flight, beat Callan Smith 6-1, 6-3.
“I felt like I served pretty solidly today, which helped out a lot,” McGaffigan said. “She broke me one game, but other than that I held my serve, which is good.”
Throughout the match, which was largely conducted in the absence of an umpire, Smith appeared to foot fault on a number of occasions when serving from the ad court.
“I didn’t notice, so I guess I couldn’t have cared,” McGaffigan laughingly said of the toe violations.
For the highest-ranked Badger, the win snapped a five-match losing streak that began against Colorado Jan. 29. The losses, however, included hard-fought matches against the No. 1 and No. 24 players in the country.
“I was playing top players,” McGaffigan said. “So it was good practice playing against them and I kind of improved my game, so that helped out in this match, I think.”
The Badgers’ most impressive numbers of the day came from Nusslock, who quickly handled Dabrowski 6-0, 6-0, ceding only one point in the second set’s final frame.
“It feels pretty good,” Nusslock said. “I think I played pretty well … I felt that my serve was pretty good.”
Clinching the victory for Wisconsin was the No. 99-ranked Burke, who picked up the day’s fourth point with her win over Maria Calbeto. Dispensing of her Golden Eagle opponent 6-2, 6-2, Burke won when Calbeto was able to only get the frame of her racket on the match-point serve.
“[During] singles, I wasn’t serving so well to begin with. Then I picked it up toward the end,” Burke said.
The Badgers’ other points came from Lindsay Martin, who dispensed of Dokter 6-1, 6-3; Caiati, who took Watkins 6-2, 6-2; and Beck, who handled Bonnelly 6-1, 6-4.
The Badgers entered the Marquette match coming off a hard-fought 5-2 loss against then-No. 5 ranked Northwestern this weekend.
“One of the things we had looked for was trying to carry the level of play from Northwestern into today’s match,” Henderson said.
The Badgers will travel to Utah next week for a showdown with Brigham Young University. They return home to Madison March 12, when the team will face DePaul.
