Tennis: Badgers split weekend after dropping tiebreaker in Tennessee

The Wisconsin men's tennis team could not hold onto a lead at Middle Tennessee State on Saturday, losing the final point of a close match. The loss followed a dominant 6-1 victory over Pennsylvania on Friday, leaving the Badgers with a split weekend.

Wisconsin improved to 6-6 overall but remains 0-1 in the Big Ten. The team is still without a win in away matches this season. The Friday match against Penn, a team Wisconsin had never beaten in program history, ended in a comfortable win for the Badgers.

Senior Josef Dodridge and junior Osgar O'Hoisin won the opening doubles point 6-1. Sophomores Daniel Soyfer and Chase Colton added a 6-2 win to secure the doubles point. Wisconsin then won all but one singles match to close out the set. O'Hoisin required three sets to win 7-5, 4-6, 10-2, while Dodridge, Soyfer, Colton, and freshman Jesper Freimuth all won in straight sets.

In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Wisconsin took the doubles point against Middle Tennessee State. Dodridge and O'Hoisin beat Chris Edge and Tom Moonen 6-4. Senior Chema Carranza and Freimuth then defeated Glan Issa and Jan Porteset 6-2. Soyfer won his singles match 6-4, 6-3 to extend his perfect season record in singles to 10-0.

Middle Tennessee State won the next three singles matches to take a 3-2 lead. Dodridge tied the match at 3-3 with a 7-6, 6-1 victory. The result came down to the final match between Carranza and Tom Moonen. Carranza lost the first set in a tiebreak and won the second 6-1. He led 5-4 in the deciding set before Moonen won the final game 7-5 to secure the win for the Blue Raiders.

Head coach Danny Westerman told UWBadgers.com that the loss was difficult but necessary. "This one stings. We need to keep working. We put ourselves in these situations so we can eventually get over the hump," he said.

Wisconsin will return to Nielsen Tennis Center next weekend. The Badgers are scheduled for a doubleheader against Cornell and UW-Green Bay on Sunday.