Northwestern
Illinois
Wildcats Fall at Illinois, 5-2
4/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 16, 2005
EVANSTON, Ill. - Sophomores Willy Lock (Lima, Peru/Markham College) and Matt Christian (Troy, Mich./Brother Rice) each notched singles wins Saturday in Northwestern's 5-2 loss to No. 4 Illinois. The Wildcats drop to 9-11 overall and even up to 4-4 in the Big Ten.
Lock and Christian both battled back to win their matches after dropping their first set. Lock improves his winning streak to five and has won nine of his last 10. At 7-1 in the conference, Lock continues to make a strong case for the all-Big Ten team. Christian continues to build on a streak of his own, having won his last three.
Northwestern's top doubles team, seniors Tommy Hanus (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) and Chuck Perrin (Atlanta, Ga./The Walker School), nearly extended its winning streak to six in a row, but the duo narrowly fell to Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe, 8-6.
Hanus also had the nation's No. 5 singles player, Ryler DeHeart, on the ropes after winning the first set, 7-6 (9). But DeHeart claimed the second set, 6-4, and Hanus retired early in the third set to concede the match to Deheart. That marks the second time this year that Hanus has taken a top-five player three sets. Back on Feb. 15, Hanus barely fell to then-No. 1 Catalin Gard of Mississippi, 4-6, 7-6 (8), 5-7
Perrin and junior Adam Schaechterle (Oconomowoc, Wis./Kettle Moraine) fought hard at No. 3 and 6 singles, respectively, taking their opponents to tiebreaks. But both Wildcats fell in straight sets.
"All the singles matches were extremely well played," Head Coach Torricelli said. "They gave it to us pretty good in doubles, but I was really proud of the way we competed in singles."
Northwestern continues its weekend road trip by traveling to Purdue for a Sunday, April 17 match set to begin at 12 p.m. CT.
#4 Illinois 5, #57 Northwestern 2
Doubles
No. 1 - Anderson/Rowe (ILL) def. Hanus/Perrin (NU), 8-6
No. 2 - DeHeart/Dabir (ILL) def. Tempke/Christian (NU), 8-3
No. 3 - Jones/Martin (ILL) def. Lock/Schaechterle (NU), 8-2
Singles
No. 1 - #5 Ryler DeHeart (ILL) def. Tommy Hanus (NU), 6-7 (9), 6-4, 1-0 (ret.)
No. 2 - #42 Kevin Anderson (ILL) def. Christian Tempke (NU), 6-2, 6-4
No. 3 - Ruben Gonzalez (ILL) def. Chuck Perrin (NU), 7-6 (2), 6-0
No. 4 - Willy Lock (NU) def. Monte Tucker (ILL), 5-7, 6-2, 6-2
No. 5 - Matt Christian (NU) def. Ryan Rowe (ILL), 2-6, 6-4, 6-2
No. 6 - Chris Martin (ILL) def. Adam Schaechterle (NU), 6-3, 7-6 (4)
* denotes clincher
Order of doubles finish: 2, 3, 1
Order of singles finish: 2, 3, *6, 5, 4, 1
Players Mentioned
