Northwestern
Michigan State
NU Falls to Spartans
4/25/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 25, 2004
Northwestern-Michigan State results
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EVANSTON, Ill.--Northwestern's 42nd-ranked tennis team lost its second match of the weekend, 5-2 to No. 57 Michigan State, but still earned a first-round bye in the Big Ten Championship this week in East Lansing, Mich. The Wildcats (14-8, 5-5 Big Ten), who tied Purdue and Indiana in the Big Ten standings, will be the four seed due to tiebreaking procedure.
The doubles portion of the match yielded three close matches, of which the Spartans (16-12, 3-7) won two to get the point. Mike Brown and Michael Flowers of MSU struck first, defeating the Wildcat duo of Matt Christian (Troy, Mich./Brother Rice) and Adam Schaechterle (Oconomowoc, Wis./Kettle Moraine) 8-6 at the No. 3 position.
Tommy Hanus (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) and Christian Tempke (Wentorf, Germany/Gymnasium Lohbrugge) tied up the doubles portion with an 8-6 win against Cameron Marshall and Eric Simonton. Unfortunately for the 'Cats, they could not clinch the point at No. 1, as Andrew Formanczyk and Chris Mitchell held off a comeback from Chuck Perrin (Atlanta, Ga./The Walker School) and Justin Hoeveler (Ross, Calif./The Branson School) to win 8-6.
Singles did not go any better for NU, as Schaechterle and Willy Lock (Lima, Peru/Markham College) lost the first two matches. Perrin made the score 3-1 when he defeated Mitchell 6-3, 6-2, keeping hope alive for the Wildcats. That hope, however, went away when Hanus lost to Formanczyk 6-2, 6-4.
Tempke got NU's only other point, winning his back-and-forth match over Marshall 7-6 (5), 4-6, 1-0 (2). Ahmed Wahla (Lahore, Pakistan/Lahore American School), playing in his final home match, captured the first set 6-4 and was up 1-0 in the second set, before a sprained ankle hampered his play. He lost the second set 6-1, and the match tiebreaker 10-5.
"Every team in our conference is about the same--if you don't show up each day, you're not going to win," said head coach Paul Torricelli. "You have to give Michigan State a lot of credit, as we were out-competed and out-played."
The Wildcats will next face Purdue on Friday at the Big Ten Championship in East Lansing, Mich. Complete tournament information will be made available early this week.
Players Mentioned
