The University of Wisconsin women’s tennis team (8–13, 2–7 Big Ten) will travel on the road to face No. 44 Nebraska (16–6, 5–4 Big Ten) and Iowa (10–12, 2–7 Big Ten) this weekend.
With only the top 10 teams reaching the Big Ten Championships, Wisconsin is especially motivated to perform well this weekend. In the Big Ten, Wisconsin is No. 13 behind Iowa and Penn State at No. 11 and Maryland and Indiana at No. 9. In the standings, they are currently 2–8, a half-game behind Iowa and Penn State’s 2–7 conference record and just 1 1/2 games behind Maryland and Indiana’s 3–6 conference record.
Since Wisconsin beat Maryland earlier in the year, the Badgers could break the top 10 through a tiebreaker with the Terps if they both finished equal in the standings. For this to happen though, Wisconsin would probably need to win their last two decisions and have both Penn State and Maryland perform poorly in their final contests.
But first, Wisconsin will need to focus on what has been a very impressive Nebraska team this year.
Four Badgers to be honored at Team USA Awards as part of USA Olympic women’s hockey team
Despite being ranked so highly, Nebraska’s strength seems to come at the back end of their slots in singles play. In the No. 1 slot, the Cornhuskers have won only 40 percent of their matches but they’ve won 70 percent of their overall singles decisions.
The team’s winningest player is Katerina Matysova who has a 16–3 overall record mostly in the No. 5 slot.
Paula Del Cueto Castillo and Brianna Lashway have also been successful in the No. 1 doubles slot for Nebraska, holding a 14–4 record in that position.
For Iowa Elise van Heuvelen has been the most frequent player in the No. 1 slot this year, with a 7–8 record in that position but a 13–8 record overall.
Zoe Douglas and Yufei Long will likely be in the first doubles slot for the Hawkeyes with a 7–3 record playing in the top spot.
The Badgers will counter this attack with one of the best freshmen in the country, Lexi Keberle whose 25–10 record speaks for itself.
Keberle will play in doubles alongside her partner Kelsey Grambeau where the two have a 7–6 overall record this year. For Grambeau this could be the final set of matches in her illustrious career with the Badgers.
Women’s tennis: Slumping Badgers fall short in final home match against Ohio State
Though the Badgers have struggled recently dropping their past six decisions Grambeau sees the team as on par with the rest of the conference.
“I think obviously on the score lines it looks like it hasn’t been what we wanted,” said Grambeau. “We faced the top two teams in the Big Ten this past weekend and we’re right there with them. We know that we can play with these guys.”
Opening serve in Nebraska will begin at 5 p.m. Friday with matches starting against Iowa at 12 p.m. Sunday.
