No. 25 Badgers Hold Off Huskers

Madison, Wis.-The No. 66 Nebraska men's tennis team dropped its third straight match on Thursday falling to No. 25 Wisconsin, 5-2, at the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wis. With the loss, NU's record drops to 3-3 on the season, while Wisconsin improved to 7-1. The Huskers captured the doubles point for the first time in three matches, but dropped every singles match except at the No. 4 position in the loss.

David Bendheim and Calin Paar (NU), who were playing doubles together for the first time of the season, defeated the No. 3-ranked doubles team in the nation Moritz Baumann and Marek Michalicka (WIS) 8-5 to pick up the Huskers' first victory of the night. After Benedikt Lindheim and Francois Van Impe (NU) fell at the No. 3 spot, the doubles point would be decided at the No. 2 position where Christopher Aumueller and Andre Stenger were playing together for the first time this year.  Aumueller and Stenger came out on top defeating Chris Freeman and Patrick Pohlmann (WIS) 8-4 to secure the doubles point and put the Huskers up 1-0 in the overall team score. Head coach Kerry McDermott was pleased with the way his doubles teams performed after not winning the doubles point in the Huskers' previous two matches.

"We played really good doubles," McDermott said.  "Experimented with a couple new doubles teams and it paid off, so we're excited about that. That was probably the highlight of the match. "

After helping upset the No. 3-ranked doubles team in the nation, Paar (NU) followed that up with an impressive win at the No. 4 singles spot for NU's only singles victory. Paar took down Chris Freeman (WIS) in three sets 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

Two Huskers suffered their first singles loss of the season on Thursday as Aumueller (NU) lost at the No. 1 position to No. 6 Baumann (WIS) in a three set thriller 3-6, 6-4, 7-6. The sophomore's record dropped to 4-1 after the loss. The other Husker to drop his first match of the season was Van Impe, who fell to Patrick Pohlmann (WIS) at the No. 3 spot. Van Impe's record now sits at 5-1 on the year. Coach McDermott believes his team must get more mentally tough to win these kinds of matches.

"I felt like their team competed a little bit harder mentally in a couple positions and I thought that was the difference," McDermott said. "Tough match to lose, but you have to move on and try to pick up a couple wins against Michigan State and Western Michigan."

The Huskers return to action on Friday, Feb. 19, when the travel to Michigan State. First serve is set for 6 p.m.

Results
NU 2, WIS 5
Doubles
1. Calin Paar/David Bendheim (NU) defeated No. 3 Moritz Baumann/Marek Michalicka (WIS) 8-5
2. Christopher Aumueller/Andre Stenger (NU) defeated Chris Freeman/Patrick Pohlmann (WIS) 8-4
3. Michael Bierberger/Luke Rassow (WIS) defeated Benedikt Lindheim/Francois Van Impe (NU) 8-5

Singles
1. No. 6 Moritz Baumann (WIS) defeated No. 30 Christopher Aumueller (NU) 3-6, 6-4, 7-6
2. No. 20 Marek Michalicka (WIS) defeated David Bendheim (NU) 6-1, 6-3
3. Patrick Pohlmann (WIS) defeated No. 91 Francois Van Impe (NU) 6-3, 6-0
4. No. 76 Calin Paar (NU) defeated Chris Freeman (WIS) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
5. Billy Bertha (WIS) defeated Benedikt Lindheim (NU) 6-3, 7-6
6. Luke Rassow-Kantor (WIS) defeated Andre Stenger (NU) 7-5, 4-6, 6-3
Order of finish: Doubles (3 1 2) Singles (2 3 5 6 4 1)