The Washington men's tennis team cruised to an early lead in its first-round match against Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament but was unable to close out the victory; the Huskies were eliminated from the tournament, bringing an end to their season.

"It's been a tough weekend," coach Matt Anger said. "It's going to take a long time for me to get over it."

The Huskies started out the match in their usual dominant fashion, winning the first two doubles matches to claim the doubles point and give them the advantage going into singles play. Freshman Derek Drabble and junior Andy Kuharszky, coming into the weekend fresh off a victory in the invitational portion of the Pac-10 doubles tournament, were first off the court with a quick 8-0 victory over Wisconsin's Michael Muskievicz and Jeremy Sonkin.

Senior Mike Ricks and sophomore Patrik Fischer brought their record at No. 2 doubles to a team-best 21-9 by defeating Michael Dierberger and Nolan Polley 8-2 to clinch the point for the Huskies.

Seniors Daniel Chu and Alex Slovic were tied at 5-5 at No. 1 singles when the doubles finished, leaving them joint holders of the record for career doubles victories at the UW with 83 apiece.

The singles matches at first appeared to be a continuation of Husky domination, as Drabble posted a quick 6-3, 6-0 victory at the No. 5 singles position. Drabble, will be a key returnee for the Huskies next season. In addition to his success in the Wisconsin match, he reached the finals in both the singles and doubles invitational draws in last week's Pac-10 individual championship.

"Derek Drabble has really come along in his last matches," Anger said. "He's starting to put things together."

Wisconsin got on the scoreboard shortly afterward, as Sonkin ended Chu's career as a Husky with a 6-3, 6-2 victory. Chu leaves Washington after four solid years of tennis in fifth place on the list of career combined singles and doubles wins, as well as first place for doubles wins alone.

Kuharszky was next to fall, losing in straight sets at No. 3 singles and leaving the match tied at 2-2.

Ricks then put the Huskies within one point of victory with a hard-fought 6-3, 7-6 (9) win against Gien Hodgson, coming back from a 6-0 deficit in the second-set tiebreaker to claim the match. With two singles matches left playing, the Huskies were tantalizingly close to a second-round rematch with Notre Dame. Fischer was points from victory but lost an early lead to drop his match 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2, leaving Slovic as the only Husky on court.

If the match were to rest on the shoulders of any one player, Slovic would be the one his team would like to see battling it out at the end for the Huskies. In his final match in purple and gold, however, Slovic was unable to close out the victory and fell to Wisconsin's Moritz Baumann 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. Slovic ended his career in first place on Washington's all-time list for both doubles wins and combined singles and doubles wins, and in fourth for singles victories.

"We could have done better, but we didn't rise to the occasion," Anger said. "But we did keep a pretty good streak going by making the tournament for the 13th year in a row, and we've done a lot of great things. Even though this last match wasn't so positive, the seniors are leaving with a lot of great memories."

Reach reporter Risa Pavia at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.