The Wisconsin men’s tennis team (1-0 Big Ten, 7-2 overall) was unable to continue its early season success, losing 5-2 to No. 29 Notre Dame in Sunday’s action at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
Fresh off last week’s come-from-behind victory over Big Ten rival Minnesota, the Badgers, ranked No. 59 entering play today, dropped their second match of the season. Both losses have come against ranked opponents. Meanwhile, Notre Dame improved to 7-5. The Fighting Irish are 4-5 against ranked teams this year, with an early schedule consisting of many of the nation’s top programs.
Wisconsin got off to a good start by winning the doubles point. The all-freshmen No. 3 team of Jakhongir Jalalov and Oskar Wikberg defeated Notre Dame junior Matt Dooley and freshman Quentin Monaghan by a score of 8-4. After ND junior Greg Andrews and senior Spencer Talmadge claimed an 8-6 win at the No. 1 spot over UW seniors Billy Bertha and Alexander Kostanov, the No. 2 team of freshman Alexander Kokorev and junior Petr Satral finished off ND freshman Alex Lawson and junior Billy Pecor, 8-4, to give Wisconsin an early 1-0 lead.
The Badgers kept the momentum initially with a win at No. 4 as singles action kicked off. Kostanov had no trouble putting away Pecor, 6-2, 6-0. With the rest of the singles matches closely contested at the outset, the sizable Nielsen crowd had the sense that there could be another upset in store. Instead, the Fighting Irish would win the remaining five matches.
After a one-match absence, Bertha returned to the No. 1 spot. He aced the first point of his match but little went right after that, losing 6-1, 6-3, to Andrews. Bertha displayed his frustration during a tough first set, but he battled hard in the second before ultimately being overpowered. Wisconsin has lost its last four matches at No. 1.
Following Bertha’s loss, Jalalov fell next, 6-1, 6-1, to Notre Dame sophomore Wyatt McCoy. While Wisconsin still had a chance, No. 6 Kokorev and No. 2 Wikberg had both lost their first sets, and at No. 3 Satral fatigued quickly against ND senior Blas Moros despite winning 6-3 in his first set. Kokorev lost 6-2, 6-4, to Fighting Irish senior Michael Moore to give Notre Dame a 3-2 lead overall. Wikberg’s passionate play could not get him past Monaghan. At match point, Wikberg hit a number of potential point winners, but Monaghan had an answer for everything. He tactfully sent one against the momentum of a crashing Wikberg to win 6-3, 6-2, and seal the Irish victory. Satral would also lose his match, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, after the final outcome was already decided.
The Badgers will look to rebound next Saturday at Nielsen and hope to end the day with two victories under their belt. They play UW-Green Bay (7-4) at 12:30 p.m. and immediately after take on Western Illinois (7-10).
