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The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Women’s tennis still winless in conference

Another hard fought match by the University of Wisconsin women’s tennis team Saturday was not enough to help capture its first Big Ten victory of the year against the Purdue Boilermakers.

The loss leaves the Badgers at 0-6 in conference play and 5-13 overall. Adding to the disappointment was that the Badgers had a chance to win every match before ultimately falling 6-1 to the Boilers.

“I think we fought really hard today, and we competed hard at every spot,” UW head coach Brian Fleischman said. “Purdue was just the better team today.”

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The contest started with three tightly contested doubles matches that were headlined by the new-look No. 1 pairing of senior Elizabeth Carpenter and freshman Aleksandra Markovic.

Carpenter had been playing with freshman Angela Chupa where the duo had garnered a national ranking. The switch didn’t lead to the desired results in a tough 8-4 loss in their match, but Carpenter didn’t seem to think the new playing partner was much of a factor.

“I think that she and I can be a great doubles team,” Carpenter said. “I just think that there are little things that we have to overcome and I think this week we’ll definitely work on that going into next weekend.”

The Badgers went on to lose the battle for the doubles point, but a late victory by Chupa and her playing partner Jessica Seyferth, a sophomore, looked like it might swing the momentum.

“After we lost the doubles point, I thought it was good momentum going into singles to win on that doubles match,” Seyferth said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t carry over to all the matches.”

As Seyferth alluded to, the team found the going tough throughout the singles matches, struggling to get over the hump in the search for their first conference win.

The lone bright spot was the play of Carpenter at number one singles versus Purdue’s Michelle Sammons. The senior fought hard to win her first set in a tiebreaker, but then she dominated the second set, winning 6-0 to claim the first and only point for the Badgers on the day.

“The first set [Sammons] got up quick,” Carpenter said. “She was on fire and playing really well. I just had to contain her hitting winners. Once I started getting going I really figured her out. The second set I took advantage of that and just kept going.”

As for the rest of the team, junior Katya Mirnova had her three-game winning streak halted in three sets versus Stephanie Wooten, while freshman Dana Larsen lost another close one to Remi Martin in three sets as well. Seyferth struggled at the beginning of her match with Tatiana Ganzha and couldn’t recover in time, losing a heartbreaker in the second set tiebreaker. Markovic also lost in straight sets to Jennifer Rabot.

“All the matches were close,” Carpenter said. “We didn’t get blown out anywhere so everyone did compete. I know that everyone played tough.”

“We put ourselves in position I think in every spot to win today,” Fleischman added. “The other team was just a little bit better than us.”

Despite the setback, Fleischman hopes to use this match as a learning experience for his players.

“You can look at a loss in two ways. You can either be discouraged or you can actually learn from it,” he said. “I think today we learned again that we are doing the right things. It just comes down to execution.”

Looking ahead, the Badgers have two more Big Ten matches next weekend against Iowa and Minnesota.

“Going into Iowa, I think we just need to make sure that were rested and mentally ready for a battle,” Fleischman said.

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