Northwestern
Harvard
Wildcats Edge Harvard 4-3
2/5/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 5, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern's men's tennis team took the doubles point and split its singles matches in a 4-3 win over No. 41 Harvard Sunday at the Combe Tennis Center. The Wildcats won two of the last three singles matches and Christian Tempke (Wentorf, Germany/Gymnasium Lohbrügge) earned the win over the Crimson's Ashwin Kumar at No. 1 singles to clinch the match for the 'Cats.
While Matt Christian (Troy, Mich./Brother Rice) and Adam Schaechterle (Oconomowoc, Wis./Kettle Moraine) fell to Harvard's Brandon Chiu and Sasha Ermakov at No. 1 doubles, Willy Lock (Lima, Peru/Markham College) and Juan Gomez (Mexico City, Mexico/South Florida) took an 8-5 decision over Scott Denenberg and Chris Clayton at No. 3 doubles to keep the Wildcats eligible for the doubles point.
Tempke and Marc Dwyer (Peachtree City, Ga./University of Nebraska-Independent Study H.S.) then beat Kumar and Brian Wan at No. 2 doubles to take the doubles point for Northwestern. The duo broke Harvard's team at 5-5 to pull ahead and take the match and secure the doubles point. Tempke and Dwyer were down 30-40 in the final game, but came through with some clutch shots for the victory.
With 'Cats leading 1-0, Schaechterle blew past Harvard's Michael Kalfyan at No. 6 singles 6-0, 6-0 to give Northwestern a 2-0 advantage.
Wan then cut NU's lead in half by topping Dwyer at the No. 3 spot 6-4, 6-2.
Clayton tied the team score at 2-2 with a win over Christian at No. 5. Christian took the first set handily, but Clayton came back to win 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Gomez then regained the lead for Northwestern with a 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 4 singles over Chiu. Gomez broke Chiu on match point to push Northwestern ahead 3-2 with only No. 1 and 2 singles remaining.
Tempke then wrapped up the win for Northwestern with a win at No. 1 singles. Tempke came through with two-tiebreaker wins to take the match against Kumar 7-6(1), 7-6(1).
After the match was already decided, Lock fell in his match at No. 2 singles versus Ermakov 6-4, 7-6(5).
With the win, Northwestern improves to 4-4 on the season. The Wildcats return to action at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11 at Tulsa.
Players Mentioned
