Northwestern University Athletics
Season Recap: Wildcats Get Back to NCAA Tournament
6/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
June 14, 2005
EVANSTON, Ill. - Heading into the 2004-05 season, head coach Paul Torricelli and the Wildcats set a very clear goal for themselves: get back to the NCAA Tournament -- the promised land that had eluded the team for two-straight years. The `Cats made good on their quest for a tournament berth by fighting through an increased strength of schedule, notching commanding wins over then-No. 18 North Carolina and then-No. 24 Ohio State along the way and finishing Big Ten play in a tie for fourth with Indiana.
"I'm proud of the way our guys fearlessly took on tough competition this year," Torricelli said. "We gutted out a few quality wins over really good teams and that was the difference in us making the NCAA Tournament."
`Difference' may be the operative word to use when describing the 2004-05 `Cats, as in the stark difference in play NU showed during the latter part of the season.
Two thirds of the way through the year, Northwestern stood at 6-10 overall, 1-3 in the Big Ten and was in the midst of a six-match losing streak. A NCAA Tournament berth, let alone a top-five Big Ten finish, seemed a distant possibility. But that all began to change April 3 at home against Penn State when the Wildcats snapped the six-match skid with a 4-3 win.
NU went on to win five of its last six, including a huge, 5-2 upset over then-No. 24 Ohio State in Combe Tennis Center on Senior Day.
That win brought the Wildcats' final Big Ten record to 6-4, an improvement on their even 5-5 mark from a year ago. The 6-4 mark also placed the team as the fifth seed in the Big Ten Championship. Indiana had an identical 6-4 record and claimed the fourth seed thanks to its 4-3 win over NU in early April. Pitted against one another in the first round of the conference tournament, the Wildcats avenged that loss with a 4-3 win of their own, advancing to the semifinals where it fell to eventual-conference champion Illinois.
Nevertheless, Big Ten coaches took notice of the Wildcats' improved play at the conference tournament banquet by awarding senior Tommy Hanus (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) and sophomore Christian Tempke (Wentorf, Germany/Lohbrugge) all-conference honors -- the first `Cats to make the team since 2001. It was the first such honor for both Hanus and Tempke, who finished a combined 12-7 in conference play.
Great as they were, those individual accolades were merely icing on the cake that the Wildcats tasted four days later. On May 4, the NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Selection Show on ESPNews confirmed what Torricelli and company had been striving for all season: an NCAA Tournament berth. The team was headed for Athens, Ga. where they would face 27th-ranked Clemson.
"It was such a tremendous feeling knowing that we earned a spot in the field of 64," Torricelli said. "Our guys fought like crazy all year and pulled out some really close matches against quality teams. It feels great to be recognized for that." Despite falling to Clemson in the first round, the season was a still success in Torricelli's eyes.
"It was great to see our seniors get the chance to compete in the NCAA Tournament one last time," he said. "Hanus, Perrin and Hoeveler each played a big role this year. Even though they're graduating, we fully expect to make it back next year."
While Torricelli's trio of seniors provided NU with leadership, his young sophomores Willy Lock (Lima, Peru/Markham College) and Tempke each had breakthrough seasons by leading the team in wins. Lock posted a team-best 25-10 overall, 9-1 Big Ten mark and Tempke was second-best at 15-13 overall and 8-2 in the conference.
Fellow-sophomore Matt Christian (Troy, Mich./Brother Rice) posted the team's third-best Big Ten record at 6-4.
Junior Adam Schaechterle (Oconomowoc, Wis./Kettle Moraine) did his part by supplying timely wins for the `Cats. In the home finale against the Buckeyes, Schaechterle clinched the match with a gutsy, straight-set win at No. 6 singles, helping Northwestern beat Ohio State for the first time since 1999.
The Buckeyes entered Combe Tennis Center having won 12 of their last 13 with a nearly unblemished 7-1 conference record, three ranked singles players and two top-40 doubles duos. Despite the lofty credentials, the Wildcats played undaunted from the get go, claiming the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and 3.
Northwestern's 1-0 lead quickly turned into a 1-2 deficit after the Buckeyes started singles competition with wins at the No. 5 and 3 positions.
But just as OSU seemed to hit its groove, Hanus turned up the heat on the Buckeyes -- specifically, on No. 56 Devin Mullings. In the final home match of his career, Hanus sprayed aces all over Court 3, finishing Mullings off in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (6), and setting the tone for the three remaining matches.
Lock put the `Cats ahead, 3-2, by winning at No. 4, 7-6, 6-3. Schaechterle then clinched the match with a 7-6, 6-2 win at No. 6. Tempke's three-set thriller at No. 2 brought the final tally to 5-2.
The win marked the second time Northwestern sent a visiting top-25 team packing with a loss. Back on January 30, NU took down then-No. 18 North Carolina, 5-2, by claiming two of three doubles matches before winning four of six in the singles competition.
In doubles against UNC, Tempke and Perrin earned their first victory of the season together by upsetting the nation's ninth-ranked doubles team of Boyd and Pomeroy, 8-5. The duo played nearly flawless against the top-10 squad. Perrin peppered the Tar Heels with blistering serves, while Tempke kept their opponents off balance with a series of precision drop shots.
Schaechterle and Hanus clinched the doubles point with a grueling 9-8 win over Stone and Guejman at the No. 2 position. The two were the most successful Wildcat duo all season, posting a team-best 8-5 overall record.
In singles against the Tar Heels, Hanus got back on track at the No. 1 slot in a big way after losing to Ball State two days earlier. The Palatine, Ill. native upset the 66th-ranked Raian Luchici 6-3, 6-3.
"When your No. 1 player gets a win like Tommy did today, it energizes the entire team," Torricelli said. "The guys fed off that win and brought it to their own games."
Schaechterle, Lock and Christian indeed fed off Hanus' performance, as each notched wins to seal the 5-2 upset.
At the time, Northwestern's upset over North Carolina had the `Cats out to a magnificent start to the spring season at 4-1. But subsequent losses to then-No. 23 Harvard, then-No. 6 Mississippi, then-No. 23 Notre Dame, Michigan and Michigan State, followed by a tough west coast roadtrip featuring losses to then-No. 28 Tulane, then-No. 13 Pepperdine and then-No. 35 San Diego had the `Cats at 6-9 overall.
That's when Northwestern began its season-ending push though, posting a 3-1 record over a two-week road trip. Starting at Minnesota, NU upset the then-No. 57 Golden Gophers, 4-3, by winning the doubles point and splitting the singles matches.
The next day at Iowa, Northwestern won its third match in a row, defeating the Hawkeyes, 5-2. NU rallied after dropping the doubles point to win five of six singles matches. Hanus and senior Chuck Perrin (Atlanta, Ga./The Walker School) recorded their fifth-straight win at No. 1 doubles, while Perrin closed out a perfect weekend for himself by winning his singles match, as well.
Northwestern suffered a minor bump in the road the following weekend at then-No. 3 Illinois, as the intra-state rival defeated the `Cats, 5-2. But NU got back on track the next day at Purdue by beating the Boilermakers, 6-1. The Wildcats took the doubles point and won the top-five singles positions to improve to 10-11 overall, 5-4 in the Big Ten.
When Northwestern followed with wins over Ohio State and Indiana, the `Cats had won six of seven matches, but more importantly... they earned a NCAA Tournament berth.
