The No. 58 University of Wisconsin Badgers men’s tennis team (9-12, 3-10 Big Ten) made the trip back to Madison to take on new conference opponent USC (14-9, 8-5 Big Ten) and, unfortunately, came up short against the No. 26 team in the nation.
The Badgers lost to the Trojans by a final score of 4-1 on Sunday, April 20. The loss marked the Badgers fifth straight as well as eighth of their last 10.
Coming off of a 4-0 loss to the No. 21 UCLA Bruins Friday, April 18, the Badgers looked to finish a lackluster year strong with a win in their season finale, but couldn’t get it done against USC.
The Badgers effort in doubles play produced some highly competitive matches against tough opponents. The No. 1 doubles duo of sophomores Oliver Olsson and Tomas Zlatohlavek faced USC’s Tristan Bradley and Peter Makk and put up a fight before ultimately falling 6-4 to the high-level Trojans’ duo.
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The Wisconsin pairing of freshman Patrik Meszaros and junior Michael Minasyan outlasted their opponents Volodymyr Iakubenko and Nathan Trouve 6-4 by winning four straight games after trailing 4-2 early. In the final doubles match, sophomore Matthew Fullerton and freshman Edouard Aubert fell to USC’s Connor Church and Karl Lee 6-4 to give the doubles point to the Trojans going into singles play.
Singles play revealed many of the same struggles that this Badgers squad has faced over the last few weeks. Patrick Meszaros was the lone bright spot as he continued to display his impressive play in his debut season against Nathan Trouve.
The freshman won the first set 6-4 and dropped the second 6-1 to set up a deciding third. The final set was filled with drama as Meszaros prevailed by the score of 7-3 in an intense tiebreaker. The win was Meszaros’ 20th of the season, an impressive mark for a freshman.
Badgers top ranked singles player Michael Minasyan had a solid showing against No. 17 Peter Makk and split the first two sets before the third was left unfinished. Sophomores Collin Beduhn and Fullerton both dropped their singles matches in straight sets while freshman Sachiv Kumar fell 2-1 in sets despite winning the second 6-1.
The 4-1 loss pushes Wisconsin to a 9-12 finish on the season, as well as a disappointing 3-10 finish in Big Ten play that places them 12th in the conference out of 14 teams. The Badgers will miss out on a Big Ten tournament spot as the young squad looks to work toward much improved play next season.