Northwestern
Louisville
No. 29 Louisville Edges 'Cats, 4-3
1/14/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Jan. 14, 2007
Results
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern welcomed its first of several ranked opponents to the Combe Tennis Center Sunday and the Wildcats showed they can hang with the best teams in the region. The 'Cats earned the doubles point and won two singles matches, but Louisville captured the third-set tiebreaker in the last singles match to take the 4-3 win. Freshman Alex Sanborn (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) won again to remain undefeated in his first college dual season.
The Wildcats fall to 1-1 on the year while Louisville now stands at 1-0.
Northwestern captured the doubles point and scored singles points on victories by Matt Christian (Troy, Mich./Brother Rice) and Sanborn, but Louisville took No. 1, 2 and 4 singles to make the score 3-3 with only sophomore Marc Dwyer's (Peachtree, Ga./University of Nebraska-Independent Study H.S.) No. 5 singles match left on the courts. As the other matches finished, fans filled the stands behind Combe's Court No. 1 to watch the exciting contest.
"It was an amazing college match for this early in the season," head coach Paul Torricelli said. "It was a toss-up that we came up on the wrong end of, but we learned some things today that proved we are a much improved team from last year."
Dwyer took the first set from Kenneth Nordheim 6-4, but the Cardinal stormed back to even the match at a set each. The later stages of the final set were filled with long rallies and several deuce points down the stretch. The sophomore pulled ahead 6-5, but Nordheim forced the decisive tiebreaker.
Dwyer, who fought through cramps during the last three games, would not go quiety. He held his serve at crucial times in the breaker to stay within striking distance, but ultimately fell 7-5 and the 29th-ranked Cardinals captured the dual, 4-3.
Northwestern captured the doubles point behind a strong performance by the No. 2 tandem of Dwyer and Sanborn. Dwyer opened the match with a strong serving game, giving the 'Cats the game at 15. The duo fell a break, 3-1, but broke the Cardinal pair back to make tie the set at 3-3. They held their next serve to pull ahead 4-3.
Dwyer again won a service game at 15 to put the 'Cats up 5-4 and the sophomore hit a volley winner up the middle in the next game to put the 'Cats up a break, 6-4. Sanborn held serve and the pair broke Louisville again to take the set, 8-4. It was the last match remaining after the Cardinals and 'Cats split the No. 1 and No. 3 matches. Sanborn hit multiple winners in the last two games to propel the 'Cats to victory.
The No. 3 pair of Christian Tempke (Wentorf, Germany/Gymnasium LohbrÜgge) and Juan Gomez (Mexico City, Mexico) dominated David Simon and Kenneth Nordheim, 8-2. Tempke started things off with a perfect service game to put the 'Cats up 1-0. The pair went up an early break, 3-1, and cruised to an 8-2 victory.
At No. 1, the 27th-ranked duo of Christian and Willy Lock (Lima, Peru/Markham College) fell to the 24th-ranked pair of Slavko Radman and Damar Johnson, 8-3. The match started with neither team able to assert itself on serves. The teams traded breaks to make the score 1-1 early. The team broke Louisville again to make the score 4-2 and held to close to 4-3, but the Cardinals pulled ahead to take the set, 8-3.
In singles action, Lock fell in his No. 1 singles match to 71st-ranked Slavko Radman, 6-3, 6-4. Tempke fought back in the second set to force a third with Damar Johnson, but could not recover from going down an early break in the third set and fell 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.
At No. 3 Singles, Christian took a straight-set win over David Simon, 6-4, 6-4 and the 'Cats took their other singles win at No. 6 when Sanbord took down Horatiu Oltean in straight-sets, 6-4, 7-5.
The 'Cats welcome a pair of ranked opponents to Combe Tennis Center next weekend. No. 69 Ball State visits at 6 p.m. Friday and former Wildcat assistant Adam Steinberg will bring his 10th-ranked and defending national champion Pepperdine squad to Evanston Sunday at 1 p.m..
Players Mentioned
