April 29, 2005
NU-Indiana Results in PDF Format
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Northwestern men's tennis team earned an emotional 4-3 win over Indiana in a Big Ten Championship quarterfinal-round match Friday morning. After dropping the doubles point, the Wildcats gutted out four of the six singles matches -- three in three sets -- to gain the victory.
Next up for Northwestern (12-11)? The daunting task of facing Illinois, the top seed, on its home turf. To say that a win over the Illini is a tall task would be understating things -- Illinois (20-3) is ranked fifth in the nation, has won seven of the last eight Big Ten Championship crowns, and has not lost a match to a Big Ten team since losing to Ohio State in 2001.
Friday's win was a mild upset on paper, as the 'Cats entered the Championship as the fifth seed and the Hoosiers were the fourth seed. Northwestern's win also avenged a 4-3 loss suffered to Indiana during the regular season.
The key match came at No. 5, where Northwestern's Matt Christian was able to rebound after dropping the second set to earn a thrilling, tiebreaker win over IU's Tom Bagnato. Christian won the third-set tiebreak, 7-4, taking the match and drawing things level at 3-3.
One spot up in the ladder, Willy Lock was cruising in the third set of his match against IU's Neil Kenner. Lock took the third set, 6-2, and that wrapped up the Wildcats' win.
Northwestern lost the doubles point to start the day -- Ryan Recht and John Stone defeated NU's Christian Tempke and Adam Schaechterle, 8-3, and then Mike McCarthy and Dara McLoughlin clinched the point by downing Lock and Justin Hoeveler, 8-6. The No. 1 doubles match was abandoned at that point with NU's Tommy Hanus and Chuck Perrin leading their Hoosier counterparts, 7-5.
Hanus rolled to a surprisingly easy win at No. 1 to get the Wildcats going. Hanus entered his match with IU's Jakub Praibis ranked 91st, while Praibis was 55th. However, Hanus was able to eke out a 7-5 win in the first set, then cruised to a 6-2 win in the second set.
Indiana went back up 2-1 when the Hoosiers' David Bubenicek defeated Perrin (7-5, 6-3), but the drama picked up after that as the other four matches went to a third set.
Tempke leveled things at 2-2 when he was able to defeat Recht at No. 2 singles, overcoming a first-set loss to win the next two (2-6, 6-3, 7-5). IU's John Stone was able to nip Schaechterle in a third-set tiebreak, 7-3, to take that No. 6 match. That set the stage for Christian's valiant win at No. 5, and Lock's clinching victory at No. 4.
BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTERFINAL
NORTHWESTERN 4, INDIANA 3
Doubles
1. Praibis/Ishtuganov (IU) led Hanus/Perrin (NU), 7-5 (DNF)
2. Recht/Stone (IU) def. Tempke/Schaechterle (NU) 8-3
3. McCarthy/Mcloughlin (IU) def. Hoeveler/Lock (NU) 8-6
Order of finish: 2, 3
Singles
1. Tommy Hanus (NU) def. Jakub Praibis (IU) 7-5, 6-2
2. Christian Tempke (NU) def. Ryan Recht (IU) 2-6, 6-3, 7-5
3. David Bubenicek (IU) def. Chuck Perrin (NU) 7-5, 6-3
4. Willy Lock (NU) def. Neil Kenner (IU) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2
5. Matt Christian (NU) def. Tom Bagnato (IU) 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4)
6. John Stone (IU) def. Adam Schaechterle (NU) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3)
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2, 6, 5, 4