The Wisconsin men's tennis team split its weekend series at the ITA Team Indoor competition, and despite its upset over No. 13 Florida State will not qualify for the Championship round.
The rain delayed Saturday's start against Florida State, but the No. 32 Badgers (4-1) started strong and earned an early lead, collecting wins at the No. 1 and 2 positions. The No. 3 nationally-ranked pair of senior Moritz Baumann and junior Marek Michalicka had the honor of closing out play in a tiebreak, pushing their Seminole rivals 9-8(4).
The Seminoles (3-1) collected wins at No. 4, 5 and 6 to leave the Badgers at a disadvantage for the first time in the meet, but sophomore Patrick Pohlmann leveled at three points apiece and left the deciding result to the No. 2 position. There, No. 20 Michalicka surrendered his first set in a contentious 9-11 tiebreak but came back to storm the second 6-1.
After three hours of intense competition, Michalicka overcame senior No. 111 Vahid Mirzadeh for the individual win 6-7(9), 6-1, 7-6(4) and sealed the upset for the Badgers 4-3 over the Seminoles.
After Saturday's grueling play, the Badgers could not withstand No. 19 Louisville (5-0) and lost to the Cardinals 4-0 on their last day of the tournament.
The Badgers lost both meetings against the Cardinals last season, each time in a close 3-4 decision, but Sunday Louisville took hold early and didn't let go. The Cardinals won doubles matches at No. 2 and 3 for the early lead and picked up singles points at No. 4, 5 and 6 to earn the necessary four points to halt play and secure the win. With this result the Badgers will not advance to the Championships in two weeks and mark their first loss of the season.
Next Saturday the Badgers will be back at Nielsen to host Southern Methodist University and Illinois-Chicago in a double header.
—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
