MADISON, Wis. — Riding a three-match win streak, the Wisconsin men's tennis team finishes the regular season this weekend by hosting No. 2 Ohio State on Friday and Penn State on Sunday.
The Badgers (11-9, 5-2 Big Ten) have won four of their last five matches and enter the final weekend of the season in third place in the league standings — trailing only Ohio State (7-0) and Michigan (7-1).
UW seeks to secure its first top-three Big Ten finish since tying for second in 2008.
1. Three in a Row!: The Badgers have won their past three Big Ten matches, consisting of a home win over Illinois and road victories at Indiana and Purdue. In that stretch, Wisconsin has not dropped a doubles match and clinched all three doubles points. Senior
Sebastian Vile also won all three of his matches, two of which went to three sets, for 13 total victories this season. He is tied with sophomore Tim Dhzurinskiy for the highest singles total wins thus far amongst the team.
2. Know the Opponent: No. 2 Ohio State is an impressive 22-2 on the season and is currently on a seven-match winning streak. The Buckeyes' only losses were to No. 1 TCU at the ITA Indoor National Championships and No. 8 Michigan in mid-March. In the most recent ITA rankings, Ohio State boasts the No. 9 singles player in Cannon Kingsley, No. 10 Majej Vocel, No. 19 JJ Tracy, No. 36 James Trotter and No. 110 Jake Van Emburgh, the son of former Badgers coach Greg Van Emburgh. The Ohio State duo of Vocel and Robert Cash also own the nation's No. 1 doubles ranking, with teammates Justin Bouais and Trotter ranked No. 12.
Penn State is 13-11 overall and 3-4 in Big Ten play with wins over Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue. The Nittany Lions travel to Nebraska on Friday before coming to Madison to take on the Badgers on Sunday. Penn State's conference losses were to No. 2 Ohio State, then-No. 7 Michigan, then-No. 52 Illinois, and then-No. 20 Northwestern. The Nittany Lions are currently in sixth place in the Big Ten standings.
3. Celebrating the Seniors!: During Sunday's match against Penn State, the Badgers will have a Senior Day celebration for
Jared Pratt,
Lenard Soha and
Daniel Nuzhny. Each player will be honored between doubles and singles play. All three have been members of the team since the 2018-19 season.
4. Follow the Action: Live updates on the Badgers can be found on Twitter (
@BadgerMTennis) and Instagram (
@wisconsintennis), while live scoring/streaming will be linked from the
men's tennis schedule page on UWBadgers.com.
5. Up Next: The Badgers host the 2022 Big Ten Tournament next week at Nielsen Tennis Stadium, with matches taking place from Thursday, April 28 through Sunday, May 1.
