BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The No. 35 Wisconsin women’s tennis team took to the road this weekend, splitting a pair of hard-fought matches against Penn State and No. 36 Indiana. The Badgers opened up the conference trip in State College, Pa. Friday evening, when they edged out the Nittany Lions 4-3. The squad made its way to Indiana and suffered a 5-2 loss at the hands of the Hoosiers Sunday.

“The two things I told our team were that on a positive side, we just had a tough stretch — five matches in 8 days — and we got four out of the five of those matches. That’s a great thing,” head coach Patti Henderson said after the Indiana loss. “On the side, we really have to learn from today: in my opinion, three out of the [five] matches that we lost, we broke down. We broke down early, and we didn’t regroup.”

For the first time all season, Caitlin Burke (No. 100 individually) represented the Badgers in No. 1 singles while Katie McGaffigan (No. 93 individually) played out of the second flight. As the sun set Friday evening, all eyes turned to those two players — the last two Wisconsin athletes on the court — as one would have to pull out a win in a closely-contested match for the Badgers, leading 3-2 at the time, to earn a victory on the day.

McGaffigan quickly rose to the occasion, coming back from a set down against Sarah Spence to claim the second frame 7-5 and then dominate the third set 6-2.

“It wasn’t until everybody came over and started cheering real loud that I realized it was up to me,” McGaffigan said. “So I kind of had to focus a little bit more than normal and pull it out.”

With McGaffigan’s victory on the books, pressure was suddenly removed from the No. 1 court, where Burke was still battling Maaria Husain. The sophomore Badger didn’t give up, contesting the matter until the very end, but ultimately came out on the short end of a match marked by lengthy volleys and fierce spin, 7-5, 7-5.

“I didn’t really think about if I was playing one or two; it was just another match. The conditions were tough playing outside, being dark and windy,” Burke said. “I tried my hardest.”

Against Indiana, Burke quickly became the co-center of attention not because of her singles play but thanks instead to a doubles match that seemingly refused to end. She and Kaylan Caiati, jointly playing for the Badgers out of the second flight, went up against Brianna Williams and Laura McGaffigan (Katie’s younger sister).

Despite winning the first game, the Hoosier duo soon fell behind 6-2 to Burke and Caiati. They then picked up the ninth game of the set before Burke held serve to bring matters to 7-3 in favor of the Badgers. Williams and Laura McGaffigan next picked up another two games before the match entered a dramatic — and unlucky — 13th game for the Badgers.

With Laura McGaffigan serving, Wisconsin tied the affair at deuce no less than eight times. On the fourth deuce, the Badgers picked up the advantage, bringing the contest to a match point. But Indiana finally held serve on the 22nd point of the game, bringing the competition to 7-6. The Hoosiers then quickly broke Burke’s serve, tying the affair.

With Chelsea Nusslock and Nicole Beck having defeated Cecile Perton and Dora Vastag 8-5 on the third doubles court and Katie McGaffigan and Lindsay Martin having fallen to Sarah Batty and Dominika Walterova 8-1 on the first court, the suddenly-tied second flight match would determine the doubles point. But once the Badgers failed to capitalize on the match point in the lengthy 13th game, momentum and the score seemed to shift Indiana’s way and would never return. Two games later, the match was over with the Hoosiers having won 9-7, claiming the final six games consecutively.

In the end, the doubles point lasted 95 minutes — a high on the season for the Badgers. But for Wisconsin, the silver lining seemed to be that the match warmed Caiati up for her singles showdown with Walterova.

“I think I was just frustrated with my doubles, and I kind of used that — I was just really upset about the overall outcome of our doubles match,” Caiati said. “That was definitely the most tiring doubles match I’ve had, but I wasn’t that tired starting the singles match … I felt more comfortable starting the singles match in the fact that I hit a lot of balls — I like to get grooved. I like to hit more balls coming into the singles match.”

For Caiati, the decisive victory marked her 8th in a row, establishing a team-high personal win streak.

The Badgers’ other victory against Indiana came from freshman Nicole Beck, who defeated Williams 6-2, 7-6 (5).

“I’m playing well considering that we’ve had five matches in the last eight days,” Beck said.

The Badgers now return to Madison, where they will enjoy a five-day break from the action before returning to the court Saturday when they play host to Minnesota and Iowa.

“Right now we’re in a position where we got to take a couple of days and regroup and just rest a little bit, emotionally kind of recover and then make sure that we work on the areas that we need to work on so we’re prepared for Minnesota and Iowa,” Henderson said.

Mac VerStandig also reported on this article from State College, Pa.