68 // VARSITY February 6, 2014
INSIDE
MEN'S TENNIS
UW sweeps home opener
Three wins at Nielsen Tennis Stadium high-
lighted by knocking off a ranked Tulane team
BY PATRICK HERB @BADGERMTENNIS
A
fter facing ranked op-
ponents in three of its
first five matches, the
Wisconsin men's tennis team
will head into an off weekend
with confidence and a winning
record.
The 70th-ranked Badgers
(3-2) opened their 2014 home
schedule with a pair of sweeps
over South Dakota State and
Bradley last Saturday and fol-
lowed that with a 4-3 win over
then-70th ranked Tulane on
Sunday.
UW enters a stretch of sev-
en consecutive home match-
es, a perfect opportunity to
strengthen the young team.
"I think it is important for
us to gain momentum here
at home," head coach Greg
Van Emburgh said. "We have
a stretch of matches at home,
now we're 3-0 at home so all of the guys
should be building some confidence and
feeling good about their games."
Senior Petr Satral and sophomores
Johnnie Jalalov and Oskar Wikberg all
boasted perfect 3-0 singles records over
the weekend.
"I think overall everybody did a great
job," Van Emburgh added. "We had a
couple of tough road matches and it was
good to be back at Nielsen, playing our
type of tennis. "The goal for this week
was to get some wins under our belt and
try to keep improving and getting ready
for each match."
The tide of Sunday's match vs. Tulane
turned early as the Badgers snatched the
doubles point in dramatic come-from-
behind fashion.
After Satral and Jalalov cruised to a
6-1 win at No. 2 doubles, UW needed to
secure a win in just one of the two re-
maining matches. Things look grim as
the Badgers trailed 5-4 on both the No. 1
and No. 3 courts.
That's when the No. 1 duo of Wik-
berg and Alexander Kokorev fought back
against Jao Chi-Shan and Dominik Koep-
fer to break serve and ultimately steal
the match in a tiebreaker, 6-5, (7-2).
"We've been stressing competing no
matter what the score is and I think Ko-
korev and Wikberg did a great job with
that today to help us win the match," Van
Emburgh said.
SCHEDULE (3-2)
LAST TIME OUT
Feb. 1 S. Dakota State W, 7-0
Bradley W, 7-0
Feb. 2 #70 Tulane W, 4-3
COMING UP
Feb. 15 Drake 2 p.m.
SMU Noon
