The Wisconsin women’s tennis team wrapped up its regular season schedule on Sunday with a loss at the hands of No. 18 Nebraska.
On a day that honored its four seniors, Wisconsin (14-12, 3-8 Big Ten) was overpowered by the Cornhuskers (23-3, 9-3 Big Ten), being able to salvage only one point losing 6-1.
Senior Aleksandra Markovic was in disbelief that her time on the tennis team is very near its end.
“It feels unreal,” Markovic said. “I’ve spent four years doing this every day, so I don’t know how it is going to really feel actually after the Big Ten tournament.”
Nebraska got off to a hot start sweeping the Badgers in doubles play, taking the doubles point.
The Cornhuskers carried their momentum from doubles play and used it to win five of the six singles matches.
No. 45 Mary Weatherholt of Nebraska was able to make easy work of Wisconsin’s fifth-year senior Alaina Trgovich in the number one singles slot, winning in straight sets.
Junior Hannah Berner was able to pick up one point for the Badgers in singles play winning in the second singles spot in straight sets both with a score of 6-2.
Berner said she was pleased with her play on Sunday and hopes she can continue her play for the Big Ten tournament.
“I honestly was feeling the ball really well today,” Berner said. “I was making her hit more and more balls, and I was really focused on every point. I’ve been playing a lot of three set matches, so to win a straight set match is so relieving. It really brings my confidence up and I’ll definitely be confident going into the Big Ten tournament.”
Freshman Sarah Loebel was riding a four match win streak in singles play coming into Sunday’s match but had that streak snapped losing in two sets in the number three position to Nebraska’s Patricia Veresova.
Head coach Brian Fleishman was disappointed in the result on Sunday but realizes how good Nebraska really is.
“Nebraska is good, we knew that going into the match,” Fleishman said. “They definitely backed up their ranking today, they are very good. I think they are going to surprise some people in the Big Ten tournament.
“From our standpoint, I think we made too many unforced errors. It’s something that if you do too much of against a good team, then you are really not giving yourself the best chance to win and I think that’s what we did today.”
On Friday, the Badgers finished their slate of away games in the regular season with a win over Iowa (8-13, 2-8 Big Ten).
In their win on Friday, Wisconsin won their second straight Big Ten match winning 5-2 over the Hawkeyes. Wisconsin took the doubles point to start off the match with wins in the number one and three positions.
Iowa was able to grab two points in singles play which included a win from No. 65 Sonja Molnar over UW’s Trgovich.
Berner knew that it was a big win for Wisconsin on Friday.
“Playing Iowa was great,” Berner said. “They are definitely dangerous, but we knew that we needed to pull out this win because it was a winnable match and needed to prove to ourselves that we deserve to be ahead of them in the Big Ten.”
Loebel was able to pick up her fourth straight win in singles play, taking her match in three sets.
The Badgers made quick work of the Hawkeyes in singles play, winning in straight sets in all but one of their four wins.
Fleishman said she was happy with his team’s performance against Iowa.
“We matched up really well against them,” Fleishman said. “The girls really fought hard and we didn’t have that many errors. It was perfect conditions for us and we performed really well on Friday.”
