The Wisconsin men's tennis team posted their first two Big Ten wins with a 4-3 victory over Michigan and a resounding 6-1 victory over Michigan State last weekend at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
""We had a lot of good wins here early on and to start off 0-2 in the conference, we were a little frustrated,"" assistant coach Evan Austin said. ""It was good to have a good home weekend and get ourselves going in the right direction.""
The Badgers had only recorded two losses before they opened conference play three weeks ago on the road against Illinois and Indiana, where they lost both matches. With this weekend's wins, the Badgers improved to 13-5 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten.
The Badgers fought tooth and nail to pick up the doubles point against No. 51 Michigan after freshman Patrick Pohlmann and junior Michael Dierberger fell to Wolverine opponents 8-4 at the No. 3 position. Juniors Michael Muskievicz and Luke Rassow-Kantor played steadily through 13 consecutive holds of serve to break Wolverines senior Andrew Mazlin and sophomore Chris Madden at 7-6 and collect the match 8-6. Finally, the No. 17 duo of junior Moritz Baumann and sophomore Marek Michalicka secured the point for Wisconsin with some heavy serves in the tiebreak game to go 9-8 (3).
Despite Pohlmann's quick singles win at No. 3, the Wolverines picked up three points with straight-set victories at No. 4, 5 and 6, leading for the first time in the match. At No. 1 and 2 Baumann and Michalicka both found themselves in decisive, must-win third sets to pick up Wisconsin's first Big Ten win and snap the Badgers' five-game losing streak against the Wolverines. The No. 47-ranked Baumann, who hasn't faced a third set in nearly two months, regrouped quickly to dismiss Michigan sophomore Jason Jung without even a final hold 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-0.
""I was serving for the match and I struggled a little bit, I lost a little bit of focus there, so it was hard to get back … but then the third set I played pretty well again, and I felt comfortable,"" Baumann said.
Finally, No. 37 Michalicka came up with the break to move up 4-3, end his match 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4 and extend the Wolverine's slump to eight losses (6-12, 0-3). The win snapped the Badgers' own five-game losing streak against the Wolverines who lead the Badgers all-time 8-69-1.
""We were ranked ahead of them a little bit and they had lost some real tight matches this year, so it was sort of a tough match for us,"" Austin said. ""On paper we were maybe favored a little bit, but we've lost some really tight 4-3s to them the last few years, so I think all the guys went in knowing it was going to be a battle definitely, and we were able to kind of tough it out in the end.""
Sunday, the Badgers leveled their all-time record (34-34) against Michigan State (12-7 overall, 0-4 Big Ten) with a win over the Trojans 6-1.
With all three matches, the Badgers recorded the doubles point with clean play and firm wins at all three positions and continued the onslaught in singles, where Pohlmann took out senior Scott Rasmussen to earn the team's second point in a 6-1, 6-1 spree.
""I just played my tennis,"" Pohlmann said. ""I was relaxed on the court, I thought that I am going to win, so I tried to focus and just play my game.""
Next, sophomore Peter Marrack and Muskievicz contributed two more straight-set victories to give the Badgers the singles split and secured the meet at 4-0 for the cardinal and white. Baumann maintained his perfect record, collecting his 18th singles victory of the year and sending away Trojan senior Alex Forger 6-3, 6-3.
With the result determined, Michalicka came back from a first set loss and added another Badger win for good measure, defeating his opponent in a decisive tiebreak 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-4) and improving the Badger score to 6-1.
""I think it was good to get sort of a comfortable win going into next weekend but it's going to be more important to have a good week of practice and set ourselves up to do well on the road next weekend,"" said Austin as the Badgers look to Big Ten foes No. 58 Northwestern and Purdue.
""We knew from the beginning there were going to be a lot of 4-3 matches so we've gotten more comfortable I think in those situations, and it's just really good to see our guys step up in those situations … and that's going to pay off for us.""
The Badgers will look to add two more wins to their conference score next weekend against Northwestern next Saturday and Purdue on Sunday.
