The men's tennis team (6-2 Big Ten, 17-6 overall) ended their last road trip of the regular season with two, 5-2 victories over No. 72 Iowa and border-rival No. 37 Minnesota.
The Hawkeyes (3-5, 11-8) struggled to get in the match from the beginning as the Badgers shut them out of the doubles competition, collecting all three sets and the opening point.
Rallying in singles, Iowa got on the board with victories at No. 4 from sophomore Will Vasos, who defeated senior Luke Rassow-Kantor in three sets, and junior Austen Kauss, who also won in straight sets.
At the top of the lineup, Wisconsin's power trio—No. 17 senior Moritz Baumann, No. 22 junior Marek Michalicka and sophomore Patrick Pohlmann—clipped the Hawkeyes' wings with straight-set victories and secured the win for Wisconsin. Freshman Chris Freeman recovered from his second-set hiccup against senior Tommy McGeorge to close out play 5-2 in favor of the Badgers.
Wisconsin then moved on to Minneapolis in search of another road win and redemption for the bitterly demoralizing 3-4 loss the squad suffered at the hands of Minnesota (4-4, 11-9) around this time last year. Early on, Baumann and Michalicka at No. 1 and Pohlmann and senior Michael Dierberger at No. 3 added doubles victories to capture the point with routine 8-2 victories.
The upset of the day came at the top spot in singles play where No. 80 junior Sebastian Gallego came back to down Michalicka in three sets and earned the first point for the Maroon and Gold.
Pohlmann and Freeman added two more points for Wisconsin before Baumann tipped the match at No. 2, marking the fourth point with his straight-set victory over No. 102 junior Tobias Wernet. The teams split the results in the last two positions to a final result of 5-2, and Wisconsin reclaimed victory in the classic border battle.
At least temporarily settling its score with Minnesota, which still holds an all-time winning record of 55-46, Wisconsin now owns fourth place in the Big Ten as the team moves into the homestretch. Next weekend the Badgers wrap up the conference slate at home with matches Friday against No. 61 Penn State (2-6, 14-9) and Sunday against No. 5 and Big Ten top dog Ohio State (8-0, 27-1).
