Although Peter Marrack wasn’t the biggest name on the University of Wisconsin men’s tennis team, Marrack’s three-set victory proved to be the difference in the Badgers’ 4-3 win over Wake Forest Sunday.
With all the other matches finished and the score tied at 3-3, all eyes were on Marrack as his match came to the end. Down 5-4 after Wake Forest’s Jonathan Wolff broke his serve, Marrack won three straight games en route to the 7-5 win.
“Every game, anyone could’ve won,” Marrack said. “It was big — they were like 20 in the country, and we lost to them last year, so I think it was huge.”
The Demon Deacons were not only ranked in the top 25 nationally, but they also featured the top doubles team in the country. Junior Moritz Baumann and sophomore Marek Michalicka proved to be up to the task, however, and handled the Wake Forest duo 8-4. Tied at four games each, the Badgers rallied off four straight games to take the match.
“That’s the No. 1 team in the country,” head coach Greg Van Emburgh said. “They are playing good enough to beat teams like that. We could be looking at our first All-American, singles and doubles.”
The convincing doubles win give Baumann and Michalicka confidence heading into some key matches.
“We’re still undefeated; we know we can beat them,” Baumann said. “It shows where we can be.”
In fact, Wisconsin won all three doubles matches on the day, including a tiebreaking win for Michael Dierberger and Michael Muskievicz. Badgers Luke Rassow-Kantor and Patrick Pohlmann had an easier time, putting the Demon Deacons away 8-2.
Although Wisconsin swept the doubles matches, it still needed singles wins from Baumann, Pohlmann and Marrack to edge out the victory.
“You die by the four-threes and you live by them,” Van Emburgh said. “Today we’re living by them.”
Unable to break Forman in his singles match, Baumann needed a tiebreak to win the first set and came from behind in the second. Facing a 3-1 deficit, he won three consecutive games to defeat Forman.
“It was tough to play him because he has a really big serve and a really big forehand. The opportunities you have, you really have to take them,” Baumann said. “I won the big points; that was the most important thing.”
In Pohlmann’s single match, he swept Andrew Brasseaux 7-5 and 6-1 to give the Badgers another vital point. “This was a team effort,” Van Emburgh said. “I’m just so proud of the guys the way they stepped up.”
Despite the help from his teammates, the match still came down to Marrack’s come-from-behind win.
“He just played with a lot of heart and a lot of guts today,” Van Emburgh said. “Hats off to him because to be in a position like that is not easy. For Peter to step up and embrace that challenge and pull that match out against a great Wake Forest player, it’s quite an accomplishment for him.”
