After three straight victories at home, the Wisconsin men's tennis team takes on its highest-ranked opponent yet this season in Sunday's conference opener against No. 11 Illinois.
Despite fresh rosters on both sides, it is a familiar position for the No. 34 Badgers (10-4 overall), who spared with the Illini in last year's season opener but fell in the decision, 3-4, in Champaign. This season the Illini (1-0 Big Ten, 7-5 overall) occupy a similar position and have impressive results over teams like Texas A&M, who wounded the Badgers 5-2 only a month ago.
""That's the thing in college tennis, every team can beat basically anyone. We beat Florida State, but then we lost to Notre Dame,"" junior Marek Michalicka said.
Sophomore Patrick Pohlmann turned the result around, putting the performance on Illinois.
""The pressure is on their side,"" he said. ""It's not that we have to win against them, [but] they should feel that they beat A&M when we lost.""
The deep Illini arsenal boasts three top-100s: No. 36 sophomore Dennis Nevolo, No. 64 senior Marek Czerwinski and No. 77 junior Abe Souza.
""Nevolo has been their top guy. He can beat anyone on a given day,"" assistant coach Evan Austin said. ""They've produced a bunch of good players ... we know what to expect from them, so if we're not ready to go from the get go, it will be tough to beat them.""
The most recent polls granted the Badgers a similar honor however, promoting Pohlmann to No. 116 to join No. 13 senior Moritz Baumann and No. 25 Michalicka. Together the trio earned the all three points in last year's match up and hope to contribute again.
""This year it's definitely my goal to compete in the NCAA tournament singles,"" said Pohlmann, happy to be back in the rankings if unsure exactly how. ""I beat some good players in the fall, but unfortunately they dropped in the rankings.""
This year, Michalicka enters the conference season 10-0 as the only Badger still undefeated in singles, an intimidating streak he intends to maintain the best he can.
""Every streak ends at some point, and it doesn't matter if it's 10 [wins], 15 or whatever number it is ... you just basically wait for it, one match where you just lose,"" Michalicka said. ""I'll try to keep it up.""
Although the two teams share a storied history over 79 matchups—49 of which have gone to Illinois—no one seems willing to put too much stock in statistics, and Nielsen's courts have favored the Badgers this year.
""You've got to take one match at a time and not over look anyone because everyone in this conference is really strong, and they all believe they can win,"" Austin said.
The conference is fair game and the Badgers will face-off against the Illini Sunday at 12 p.m. at Nielsen Tennis Center.
