With wins at three singles and one doubles in an 8-1 team victory over Elmhurst Saturday in Elkhorn, senior Byron Balkin (Madison/Memorial) tied Alex Lowe (2006-09) for most combined wins in doubles and singles (165) in UW-Whitewater men's tennis history.  It also happened to be senior day.  Balkin topped Luke Tanaka of Elmhurst 7-5, 7-5 and paired with Jake Humphreys (Kenosha/Tremper) to beat Will Jung and Alex Harbert 8-3.  UW-W improves to 16-7 this season while the Bluejays drop to 11-4.

Complete results

UW-W walked away with a 3-0 lead after three tough doubles matches, and cruised to victory with wins at five of six singles flights.  All three doubles teams that competed together on Saturday are a combined 8-0 this season.

UW-W's other two seniors, Brian Klein (Brookfield/East) and Kevin Friend (Deerfield, IL/Deerfield), also chipped in some key wins for the Warhawks.  Klein won 6-3, 6-4 at five singles and teamed up with Rithwik Rajshekhar Raman (Chennai, Tamil Nadu-India/SAIDS British Education) at three doubles to win 8-5.  Friend parterened up with Ben Shklyar (Deerfield, IL/Deerfield) for the first time this season and won 8-6 at two doubles.

Balkin will look to break Lowe's record when the team returns to the courts on Friday, April 18 at UW-La Crosse in a two-day competition against the other three Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schools.  UW-W will face UW-Oshkosh Friday at 3:30 pm and UW-La Crosse and UW-Eau Claire Saturday at 9 am and 1 pm respectively.


AZ