The No. 33 Wisconsin women’s tennis team will venture to Columbus, Ohio, Sunday for a showdown with the Buckeyes. In what will be the squad’s final regular-season match, the Badgers hope to crash Ohio State’s senior day and finish the spring campaign with a winning conference record (a loss would leave the team at .500).
“We have to be ready for Ohio State — they are [ready for us],” head coach Patti Henderson said. “They are a feisty team. It’s going to be intense like it was against Michigan State. It’s going to be that kind of intensity, that kind of energy — it could be a little bit volatile.”
For seniors Katie McGaffigan and Lindsay Martin, the OSU showdown will mark their final regular-season bows in Badger uniforms.
“It will be our last match, so hopefully we’ll end the year on a good note — before we head into [the Big Ten tournament] — with a win and feeling good,” Martin said.
Wisconsin will enter Ohio State on the heels of a duo of split weekends, coming off of three consecutive matches determined by a 4-3 margin with emphasis on the doubles point. Henderson has made a series of lineup fluctuations throughout the season to combat problems garnering that point — the team’s apparent Achilles’ heel — but the starting trio of pairings seemed to fall in sync last weekend as the Badgers handled Purdue 4-3 on senior day, claiming the doubles point en route to victory.
The other notable lineup fluctuation of late has been a shift at the No. 5 and 6 singles spots. Freshman Chelsea Nusslock has moved up from the sixth spot to the fifth while Lexi Goldin filled the final roster position for the first time this season last Sunday when Nicole Beck sat out of singles (she was, however, active in doubles competition).
Rank and file
New rankings came out Tuesday, and for the third consecutive evaluation period, the Badgers held firm at No. 33. This represents the squad’s peak position on a season in which they debuted at No. 48 and found themselves at No. 45 less than a month ago.
On the individual front, however, the rankings were not as kind to the Badgers. Senior Katie McGaffigan slipped from No. 91 to No. 100 after a duo of weekend losses to the No. 99 and No. 41 players nationally.
The bigger surprise came in Caitlin Burke’s drop from No. 81 to No. 106. Burke had moved up significantly in the previous rating period as the numbers emerged after she enjoyed a brief stint playing top-flight doubles (having swapped out of the No. 2 spot with McGaffigan for a road trip). But this fall comes on the heels of two convincing straight-set victories last weekend and a perfect record since the last batch of rankings was released April 5.
Four more batches of rankings for both teams and individuals are due before the season formally comes to an end with final numbers due out May 30.
