Exactly one year ago, the Wisconsin men’s tennis team came together before its 2009-10 campaign and decided upon one specific goal: Make it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament.
With the help of three nationally-ranked players and their experienced head coach, the Badgers were able to achieve that goal for the first time in school history, finishing the season 23rd in the national rankings, which was also a program best. This success has fostered high expectations, which UW will attempt to exceed beginning this fall.
However, the makeup of this year’s team comes together quite differently. The Badgers are without five major contributors from last year’s accomplished squad, including their former captain, Moritz Baumann, who spent the majority of the year as the team’s number one singles player.
Even with substantial turnover in their starting line-up, the team has already started to believe in its identity, deciding to stand by last year’s ambitious goal.
“Obviously you want to try and build from last year’s results and keep setting the bar high,” head coach Greg Van Emburgh said. “I think we are going to be able to do just that.”
That feeling of confidence, one comparable to that which last year’s team maintained until the end of their historic season, is a sentiment shared not only by the coach but by his players as well. Yet, for as much poise as they exude, the pervasion of inexperience is notable.
Recently appointed team captain and Czech Republic-born Marek Michalicka, who knocked out No. 17 ranked Raony Carvalho from Texas Tech University last year in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, remains as only one of two players who were fixtures in the lineup a year ago.
The rest of the team is made up of freshmen Alex Robles, Petr Satral and Alexander Teppert and sophomores Billy Bertha and Ricardo Martin. Between the five of them, they have only garnered but a small sum of Division I match experience.
“Two, three and four (singles from last year) left, and it’s always tough to replace those kinds of guys,” Michalicka said. “But we should definitely try and achieve what we did last year, we got third place in conference, we can definitely go for that.”
If the Badgers are going to recreate the kind of season they had last year, they will have to do it in a Big Ten Conference replete with deep, talented and experienced teams. Ohio State, which ousted Wisconsin in the Sweet Sixteen last season, and Illinois will likely once again stand as the class of the conference.
“Ohio State is still pretty good,” freshman Alex Teppert said. “We pushed them as far as they were pushed last year, and I think we can do it again this year given the right circumstances. Anything is possible.”
It appears the philosophy of setting the bar high works. Beating Illinois in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year en route to a Sweet Sixteen berth capped off a memorable and hard fought season.
“That’s something that’s never been accomplished [before], and we accomplished it last year just by having it in our sights,” Van Emburgh explained. “It’s not something we set and was out of reach. We set it and we knew we could reach it.”
The quest for success this year begins with an abbreviated fall season. This weekend, the Badgers will take part in the 35th Annual Milwaukee Tennis Classic, where they will face the likes of fellow Big Ten rival Northwestern, as well as in-state rival Marquette and Ball State.
