The No. 25 Wisconsin Badgers women’s tennis team (10-2) added two more wins to their hot streak in Big Ten matchups against No. 48 Purdue (7-3) and Indiana (6-10) on Saturday and Sunday.
The Badgers steamed past the Purdue Boilermakers in West Lafayette for an early lead in doubles play. Purdue forfeited their third team in doubles play, giving Badgers Taylor Cataldi and Rosie Garcia Gross the win by default.
As Wisconsin searched for their next doubles win to take the point, heads turned to Badgers Xinyu Cai and Ellison Reynoldson on court two. The pairing, who went 1-1 in home matches last weekend, fought hard in a close match against Boilermakers Wilson and Gibs, upsetting their opponents 6-4.
Moving swiftly into the singles play of the matchup, the Badgers continued to grab wins out of the Boilermakers’ hands.
Playing until clinch, the Badgers only needed to acquire three more points in the singles portion to walk away with the win. Purdue forfeited their No. 6 singles position, giving the Badgers a 2-0 edge as singles play began.
On court five, Garcia Gross fought for an early win against the Boilermakers by chugging past opponent Ashlie Wilson with a 6-2 upset in the first set. Gross then proceeded to rattle off six consecutive game wins, taking the set in a 6-0 sweep.
Wisconsin searched for their fourth and final point against the Boilermakers, and sophomore Maria Sholokhova answered on court one. Sholokhova faced off against junior Carmen Gallardo Guevara, who was undefeated in singles this campaign with a 9-0 record until Sholokhova bested her.
Sholokhova and Guevara were evenly matched in the first set, but Sholokhova fought off a tiebreak loss, to take away the set 7-6 before upsetting Purdue in a 6-3 win in the second set.
The Badgers took the matchup with a 4-0 win, third-straight sweep after taking down Boise State and DePaul the previous weekend.
Wisconsin stopped in Bloomington on Sunday for a face-off against the Indiana Hoosiers.
Senior Alina Murkhortova and freshman Ava Martin broke away to give the Badgers the early lead with a 6-2 triumph over the Hoosiers in doubles play. Cataldi and Garcia Gross followed suit shortly after with a 6-4 upset that secured the doubles point for Wisconsin.
The Badgers clinched the matchup by rattling off four consecutive wins in singles matches. Both Cataldi and Reynoldson started strong by taking the first six games to sweep their opponent in the first set before taking the second set 6-3.
Wisconsin clinched the matchup with Cai’s performance against Lene Mari Hovda. After a 7-5 win in a nail-biter first set, Cai proceeded to shut down the Hoosier’s attempts in the second set. The Badger went on a six-game streak, taking the set 6-0 and the match.
Wisconsin dropped one point during Kaja Jacobson’s loss in a tiebreak in the second set, but the Badgers managed to pick up the next two points with wins from Sholokhova and Mukhortova on courts one and two. The wins sealed the deal and gave Wisconsin its tenth win of the season.
Coming out of the weekend with an overall record of 11-1, the Badgers will return to the Nielsen Tennis Stadium on Saturday for a border battle against Minnesota at 12 p.m. followed by a faceoff against UW-Milwaukee at 5 p.m.
Molly Sheehan is the Sports Editor for The Daily Cardinal. She has covered Wisconsin Badgers sports teams, written articles including player profiles and game previews, and covered match-ups as a photojournalist. Follow her on X @mollyrsheehan and Instagram @msheehan.photography
