The Wisconsin men's tennis team (3-3 Big Ten, 9-10 overall) started off its four-match homestand superbly wirh a 4-3 upset over No. 60 Purdue (1-6, 10-11) Friday, but they were unable to get another upset after falling to No. 27 Indiana (7-0, 20-4) Sunday 4-3.
The Badgers fell in the Nos. 3, 5 and 6 singles spots to give Purdue the 3-1 lead but UW won the last three matches for a hard fought upset.
Wisconsin grabbed the early doubles point which ended up being the decision maker in the match as both teams split the singles results.
The points came from No. 70-ranked duo of Marek Michalicka and Billy Bertha in an 8-3 win over Purdue's Krisztian Krocsko and Eric Ramos for their twelfth win of the season.
Wisconsin's freshman pairing of Rod Carey and Fredrik Ask followed suit taking the 8-6 win in the No. 3 doubles slot to give UW the doubles point.
Wisconsin senior captain Michalicka earned an easy win in the No. 1 spot defeating Purdue's Szymon Tatarczyk 6-2, 6-1.
The win marked Michalicka's thirteenth of the season as the No. 70-ranked Badger improves his record to a team-high 13-4 on the season.
Bertha and Petr Satral finished off the match for Wisconsin in the Nos. 2 and 4 spots, respectively, to give the Badgers the 4-3 win.
Against Indiana, Michalicka extended his four-match winning streak against Indiana's Jeremy Langer for Wisconsin's first single win, taking the 7-6 (5) win and the easy 6-1 second set win.
Bertha was in a three-set fight, but couldn't finish things off, falling to Santiago Gruter, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 and gave Indiana the match win, 4-2.
Despite the match decision, Ask continued his close match against Indiana's Claes Goransson. After falling in his first set, Ask came back for a 6-4 second set win to take the match to a third set and finally coming out on top in a tiebreak decision, 7-6 (6).
Wisconsin will finish its homestand next weekend, taking on the No. 3 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes on Friday and Penn State on Sunday. Match times are set for 2 p.m. on Friday and noon on Sunday.
