The Wisconsin women's tennis team exited the ITA Indoor Team Championship this weekend after three consecutive loses to ranked opponents 6-1.
The Badgers (2-7) hosted the tournament for their twenty-third consecutive year and took on No. 1 Duke (7-1) in their first round match for the second. Duke collected the early advantage by sweeping the doubles matches and carried that momentum into singles where they won all six first sets.
For five of the ladies, that was it and they fell in second sets but freshman Hannah Berner battled back to take her second against No. 63 sophomore Monica Gorny 6-2 and force a third-set tiebreak which she won 10-6. The victory allowed Wisconsin to improve on last year's shutout loss to Duke, and the Blue Devils settled for the 6-1 victory.
The women came back bright and early Saturday morning for a 9 a.m. date with their consolation opponent, No. 14 Clemson (9-2) where they again had to enter singles play carrying a one-point doubles deficit, despite the best effort of senior Katya Mirnova and junior Jessica Seyferth who pushed to a tiebreak at No. 3.
This time it was Seyferth who came up with the singles win at No. 3 to put the Badgers on the board. She downed senior Tiger Ina Hadziselimovic 6-2, 6-3. Clemson notched three more wins while junior Alaina Trgovich waged on against senior Estefania Balda at No. 6.
The Badger won her first set but dropped the second 0-6 and fought Balda to 14-12 in the tiebreak, but Balda prevailed and the Tigers finished the match 6-1.
The Badgers concluded their tournament stint with a third consolation loss to No. 9 Georgia Tech (6-2) who was ousted from the main bracket in the first round by No. 3 California and again by Tennessee. After three doubles sets the Badgers once again found themselves staring down an early deficit, but this time a strong showing from Seyferth and Mirnova tipped one in the Badger's favor as the co-captain pair won their match 8-6. Berner and freshman Kathleen Saltarelli almost made it two but the duo lost the tiebreak for their match and the decision 9-7.
In singles, Trgovich built on Saturday's strong showing and finally earned her win straight-out in a 7-5, 7-5 victory over sophomore Hilary Davis at No. 6. Trgovich's was the lone win for the women on Saturday.
The tournament drew to a close on Monday afternoon where No. 2 Northwestern defeated No. 11 North Carolina 4-2 in the Championship match.
The women's tennis team will continue their run at home this weekend against Western Michigan (6-3). The first serve drops at 11 a.m. at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
