Sunday, 04/22/2012

LINCOLN – The No. 71 Nebraska men’s tennis team was unable to send its seniors off with a win on Sunday afternoon at the Nebraska Tennis Center as they were defeated by the Wisconsin Badgers, 4-3. With the loss, the Huskers finish the regular season with a 10-14 record while going 3-8 in Big Ten Conference action. The Badgers finished the year 12-11 with a 4-7 conference record.

The Huskers started out the match sweeping doubles play.

On court No. 1 UN’s duo of Eric Sock and Andre Stenger downed Wisconsin’s squad of Austin Ask and Billy Bertha, 8-7 (7-2). Nebraska’s Benedikt Lindheim and Robert Schulze were victorious over Wisconsin’s Alexander Kostanov and Rod Carey, 8-3. Winning the third match for NU on court No. 3 was Christopher Aumueller and Tom Blackwell, who defeated Wisconsin’s Quinton Vega and Alex Robles.

With the match tied at three, it came down to court No. 5 where Wisconsin’s Alexander Kostanov fought back to defeat Nebraska’s Tom Blackwell, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, pick up the fourth point for Wisconsin, thus clinching the match for the Badgers.

On court No. 1 Nebraska’s Aumueller defeated the Badgers’ Ask, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. Wisconsin’s Carey downed NU’s Lindheim in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0, on court No. 2. On court No. 3 Nebraska’s Schulze downed Wisconsin’s Vega in straight sets, 7-6, 7-5.

Wisconsin’s Petr Sentral downed NU’s Stenger, 6-0, 6-3 on court No. 4. Drew Freeman was playing at the No. 6 spot in the Huskers’ lineup and was defeated by Wisconsin, Bertha, 6-2, 6-2.

After the match, Nebraska Head Coach Kerry McDermott called Sunday’s loss a disappointment.

“It’s a disappointment to finish he season with a 4-3 loss,” McDermott said. “It’s kind of been like this all year. I thought we were a much better team than where we finished this year. We knew going into this match they were going to be favored at four, five and six singles and we had to win the doubles point, which wedid. And we for sure had to win at one, two and three singles and we didn’t get that done. And not to steal a match form them like they did to us, hurt us.It’s kind of a disappointment. Good teams can ride the storms and not use excuses and we had a few too many guys use excuses lately and it got us again.”

The Huskers next match will be in the Big Ten Championship in Chicago, Ill. Thetournament begins on Friday. Check back to Huskers.com for all your men’s tennis updates.

Wisconsin 4 def. No. 71 Nebraska 3

Doubles

1. Sock/Stenger (NU) def. Ask/Bertha (Wis.), 8-7 (7-2)
2. Lindheim/Schulze (NU) def. Kostanov/Carey (Wis), 8-3
3. Aumueller/Blackwell (NU) def. Vega/Robles (Wis), 8-4

Order of finish: 3, 2, 1

Singles

1. Christopher Aumueller (NU) def. Fredrik Ask (Wis), 1-6, 6-1, 6-3
2. Rod Carey (Wis) def. Benedikt Lindheim (NU), 6-3, 6-0
3. Robert Schulze (NU) def. Quinton Vega (Wis), 7-6, 7-5
4. Petr Satral (Wis) def. Andre Stenger (NU), 6-0, 6-3
5. Alexander Kostanov (Wis) def. Tom Blackwell (NU), 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
6. Billy Bertha (Wis) def. Drew Freeman (NU), 6-2, 6-2

Order of finish: 2, 4, 6, 1, 3, 5