Both of Marquette’s tennis teams faced ranked opponents this weekend, but neither team was able to complete an upset. In Bloomington, Indiana, the women’s team fell to No. 63 Indiana 5-2, while in Madison, the men’s team lost 7-0 to No. 36 Wisconsin.
The women’s team didn’t get off to the start it was hoping for after dropping the doubles point to start the match. Despite being down, however, the Golden Eagles fought hard in singles, winning two matches and staying close in three matches.
“We played well, we competed well. It’s a few points here and few points there,” said women’s head coach Jody Bronson. “We lost two of our matches 7-6 that could have easily gone to a third set and put us in a position to win … Honestly we could have won five singles matches. It was that close.”
One of the singles victories came from Silvia Ambrosio at the No. 1 position, who defeated her opponent 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
“(Silvia) played the best match that she has for a while,” said Bronson. “She is in a tough position because at No. 1 there is always a good opponent.”
Bronson believes once her team starts playing better doubles they will have an easier time winning matches.
“The way doubles is played with no ad scoring, if you miss one serve return in a game it is really hard to climb out,” said Bronson. “You lose that first point you are down already and you are only basically playing five points. It is not a good situation and we have to get better at that.”
The men’s team ran into a confident Wisconsin team who is off to the program’s best start since 1990.
After losing the doubles point, the Golden Eagles were unable to find a rhythm in singles and dropped all six of their singles matches.
“They came out and jumped on us in doubles and that set the tone for the day,” said men’s head coach Steve Rodecap.
Heading into the match Rodecap changed his lineup, moving freshman Alvaro Verdu to first singles and senior Daniel Fernandez to second singles.
“I just felt Alvaro has been trending in the right direction,” Rodecap said. “He has been extremely competitive and I just wanted to give him an opportunity to move up and play one. Those guys are both really good players and they need to be ready to play either number. Fernandez has played a lot at that position and I wanted to give (Alvaro) a chance to know what it was like to be at the top.”
The men’s team is back in action on Wednesday against NIU at 6 p.m. at Helfaer Tennis Stadium. The women will resume play in Iowa on Saturday against Drake at 10 a.m.
