Northwestern
Notre Dame
No. 26 Notre Dame Outlasts 'Cats, Wins 6-1
1/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Jan. 22, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern's men's tennis team put up quite the fight, but did not get much to show for it as the No. 26 Notre Dame Fighting Irish escaped Combe Tennis Center with a 6-1 victory Saturday night.
Although it only counts for one point, the doubles portion of a dual often sets the tone for a match. Saturday proved to be no exception.
After watching Notre Dame's No. 2 doubles pair of Barry King and Sheeva Parbhu defeat Northwestern's Christian Tempke (Wentorf, Germany/Gymnasium Lohbrügge) and Marc Dwyer (Peachtree City, Ga./University of Nebraska-Independent Study H.S.) 8-2, the Wildcats' doubles duos at No. 1 and No. 3 rallied.
The 'Cats No. 1 duo, Matt Christian (Troy, Mich./Brother Rice) and Adam Schaechterle (Oconomowoc, Wis./Kettle Moraine), broke Notre Dame's 12th-ranked duo of Eric Langenkamp and Ryan Keckley a couple of times en route to an 8-6 win.
Down 3-1 to the Notre Dame pair of Stephen Bass and Brett Helgeson, things looked pretty bleak at No. 3 doubles for Willy Lock (Lima, Peru/Markham College) and Juan Gomez (Mexico City, Mexico/South Florida). With the doubles point on the line, the pair clawed their way to a 7-7 tie.
Bass and Helgeson fought off a couple of break points to push the match to 8-7 before breaking Lock and Gomez to earn a 9-7 win and secure the doubles point for the Irish.
"The doubles point was very important for us tonight," Northwestern Head Coach Paul Torricelli said. "They were very even contests and we needed that point to provide us the momentum necessary to take on their tough singles lineup."
The Irish used that momentum to get off to a fast start in singles. After losing the first set 6-2, Christian was forced to retire against Notre Dame's Ryan Keckley due to an injury.
In a rematch from doubles Helgeson topped Gomez at No. 4 singles, winning 6-0, 6-3.
Schaechterle kept the 'Cats in the match with a decisive 6-3, 6-0 victory at No. 6 singles against the Irish's 65th-ranked Langenkamp.
"Adam had a good night," Torricelli said. "As a senior Adam has shown the ability to step in big matches."
Schaechterle's win could not provide the spark that Northwestern needed, however, as two other singles matches were nearing completion in the Irish's favor. 14th-ranked Parbhu defeated Lock at No.2 singles by a score of 6-1, 6-4, while King edged Dwyer 6-3, 6-2.
The only singles match that threatened to go to a third set was between Tempke and eighth-ranked Bass at No. 1. After dropping the first set 6-3, Tempke roared back with some fantastic baseline play that enabled him to break Bass twice in the second set. Bass fought off Tempke's charge, however, and outlasted him in a tiebreaker to win the match 6-3, 7-6 (4).
With the defeat, the 'Cats fall to 3-2 on the year while the Irish improve to 1-0.
After staying in the Midwest for their first five dual matches, the Wildcats travel to Tobacco Road next weekend to take on North Carolina at 5 p.m. Friday January 27 and Wake Forest at 11 a.m. Sunday January 29.
Players Mentioned
