Feb. 1, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Junior Christian Tempke (Wentorf, Germany/Gymnasium Lohbrügge) has been named Big Ten Athlete of the Week the conference office announced Wednesday. Tempke earned the honor, the first of his career, after defeating a pair of the nation's top-15 singles players last week.
Tempke's first win of the weekend came on Friday when he topped North Carolina's fifth-ranked Raian Luchici. After splitting the first two sets, Tempke rallied to beat Luchici in the super-tiebreaker and took the No. 1 singles match 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (11).
Two days later, Tempke claimed another three-set upset versus Wake Forest's 11th-ranked Todd Paul. After dropping the first set, Tempke roared back and took the next two, winning the match 3-6, 6-1, 7-5.
Tempke, alongside Marc Dwyer (Peachtree City, Ga./University of Nebraska-Independent Study H.S.), also notched Northwestern's lone doubles win versus North Carolina by defeating Lenny Gullan and David Stone at the No. 2 spot, 8-6.
With the two singles wins, Tempke now stands at 5-2 in dual matches this season.