Feb. 17, 2007
Results
Evanston, Ill. -- Northwestern's 38th-ranked men's tennis team fell to 51st-ranked Penn State Friday night in a nail-biter, 4-3. The doubles point proved to be critical as the teams split the six singles matches in the 'Cats' first dual of the Big Ten season.
The Nittany Lions took an early lead by winning the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. At No. 3 doubles, Wildcats Christian Tempke (Wentorf, Germany/Gymnasium LohbrÜgge) and Juan Gomez (Mexico City, Mexico) were defeated by Guillaume St. Maurice and Chris Sherman, 8-4. However, the 'Cats came back to even it up as Marc Dwyer (Peachtree City, Ga./University of Nebraska-Independent Study H.S.) and Alex Sanborn (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) defeated Brad Hunter and Ryan Berger at No. 2 doubles, 8-5.
The doubles point came down to a match-up of highly-ranked doubles teams as the 'Cats No. 27-ranked team of Matt Christian (Troy, Mich./Brother Rice) and Willy Lock (Lima, Peru/Markham College) faced off against Penn State's No. 23-ranked team of Michael James and Adam Slagter. The match went to a tiebreak, which seesawed back and forth until Slagter won it for the Nittany Lions, 9-8(5), on a forehand return.
Play turned to singles as the 'Cats' Tempke quickly evened up the score with a win at No.1 singles over James, 6-2, 6-2, extending his winning streak to four matches. Tempke lost the first two games of the first set, but then reeled off four in a row to capture the set 6-2 before keeping his momentum going in the second set to secure the win.
The Nittany Lions regained the lead, 2-1, when Christian fell to Slagter, 7-5, 6-4, at No. 3 singles.
Penn State then extended its lead to 3-1 when Dwyer dropped a close 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 match at No. 4 singles to Ryan Gormley. After dropping his first service game, Dwyer took control of the first set, punctuated by an overhead slam on set point. However, he couldn't continue his momentum and fell in a tight third set.
Having lost the doubles point, Northwestern had to win all three remaining singles matches to win the dual and almost did so, thanks to wins at No. 2 and No. 4 singles by Lock and Gomez, respectively.
At No. 2 singles, Lock defeated Berger, 7-6(4), 6-4. The first set lasted well over an hour as the two battled and each managed to break serve once en route to a tiebreak that Lock toughed out. The second set proved to be just as competitive as the players exchanged breaks until Lock finally forced an error from Berger on match point to win the 'Cats second singles point.
Almost immediately after No. 2 singles went final, Gomez finished a comeback to defeat the Lions' St. Maurice. After dropping the first set, Gomez won the second set and broke his opponent twice in the third set en route to a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory that evened the dual at three points apiece.
The dual came down to the No. 6 singles match between Sanborn and James Dwyer. Sanborn had dropped the first set quickly, 2-6, but bounced back to take a tough second set, 7-5, breaking his opponent twice.
Fans were on edge as Northwestern managed to tie the dual score during the last few points of the match. Sanborn had just managed to break Dwyer as the Lion served for the match, but was unable to hold in his next service game, losing the match by a final score of 6-2, 5-7, 4-6.
The loss drops the 'Cats to 5-5 in duals. Penn State remains unbeaten with a 7-0 record.
The 'Cats will be back for more Big Ten action when they face No. 22 Michigan at 3 p.m. CT Sunday, at Combe Tennis Center.