Feb. 17, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern fought hard in doubles and took sets in three singles matches, but fell 6-1 to Arizona State in a tough dual Sunday afternoon at Combe Tennis Center. Sophomore captain Alex Sanborn won the 'Cats' lone point at No. 2 singles in a match that could not have been any closer with two tiebreak sets and a match tiebreaker.
The 'Cats are now 6-5 overall while Arizona State remains perfect with a 5-0 mark.
Northwestern jumped to an early lead in the doubles point with an easy 8-4 win at No. 2 by Pete Rispoli and Alexander Thams over the Sun Devils' Juan Carlos Rebaza and Andres Arango. Arizona State quickly retaliated with an 8-3 victory by Wes Miller and John Nanosky over Wildcat freshmen David Seyferth and Andrew McCarthy at No. 3.
The decider in doubles came at No. 1 in a tough match between the Wildcat tandem of Marc Dwyer and Alex Sanborn and the Sun Devils' T.J. Bellama and Matt Brooklyn. The `Cats broke early to go up 3-1, but the match was leveled at 5-5. They had an opportunity to regain the break, but the Sun Devils proved too strong and won the next three games for an 8-5 victory to claim the doubles point.
Arizona State carried its momentum into singles and built on its lead with a 6-3, 6-1 straight set victory at No. 4 by Miller over NU's Rispoli. The next match to finish was Nanowsky's 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Seyferth at No. 6. The two exchanged breaks twice early in the first set and were on serve until 4-4 in the second before Nanowsky pulled out the victory.
At No. 3, Alexander Thams fell behind early to the Sun Devils' Rebaza and lost the first set, 6-2, before storming back to even the match with a 6-3 second set victory. He struggled to keep the momentum and lost the third 6-1, which clinched the dual for the Arizona State.
Like Thams, Dwyer dropped the first set at No. 1 singles, 6-2, to Arizona State's Matt Brooklyn. He rebounded to go up two breaks early in the second set, but Brooklyn struck back to even it at 5-5. The Wildcat got broken in his next service and challenged hard as Brooklyn served for the match, but the Sun Devil persevered for a 7-5 win.
The most exciting match of the afternoon came at No. 2 singles between Sanborn and Andres Arango. The players exchanged breaks throughout the first set before heading into a tiebreak. In the breaker, Sanborn fought off two set points before finally falling 7-6(6).
The second set was even more of a battle as both players held serve throughout and it once again ended in a tiebreak. This time, the Wildcat emerged victorious and sent the match into a "superbreaker" because the dual was already decided. The best-of-10 match tiebreak was riveting as the players remained neck and neck until Sanborn forced an Arango forehand error to win the match 6-7(6), 7-6(3), 1-0(8).
Gomez faced ASU's Bellama in the last match on the courts at No. 5 singles. The two split the first two sets, but Bellama broke in the first game of the third set and held on for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory to give the Sun Devil victory a final score of 6-1.
Northwestern heads on the road and kicks off Big Ten action in its next two duals against Michigan on Feb. 22 and Penn State March 2. The `Cats return home to face Vanderbilt March 4 at 7 p.m.