Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Open Fall Season Friday
10/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Oct. 8, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill.-- Northwestern men's tennis team plays its first match in 24 seasons with a new coach on Friday as Arvid Swan's tenure begins at the Wildcat Fall Invitational at the Vandy Christie Tennis Center.
The tournament consists of two flights of singles and one flight of doubles with players from Northwestern, DePaul, Western Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin participating in the three-day tournament. Tournament play begins at 11:30 am on Friday, with NU's first match at 3:30 p.m. Play continues beginning at 8:00 am on Saturday and again at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday.
This season, Northwestern returns four players from a 2006-07 squad that finished 10-14.
Senior Juan Gomez (Mexico City, Mexico) went 6-19 overall on the year and split time between No. 4 and No. 5 singles, going 3-8 at both. In doubles play, Gomez partnered with Christian Tempke to anchor the No. 3 doubles spot with an 11-8 record.
Alexey Evstratenkov (Moscow, Russia/ Moscow International Gymnasia) finished 1-3 overall and 1-1 in duals. He partnered with Alex Sanborn (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) twice at No. 3 doubles with a 0-2 record. Fellow junior Marc Dwyer (Peachtree City, Ga./ University of Nebraska-Independent Study H.S.) posted a 9-16 overall record in singles, including a 9-14 record in duals.
As the lone returning sophomore, Sanborn compiled a 10-17 overall singles record, while going 11-11 in duals and 4-5 in the Big Ten. Sanborn also partnered with Dwyer at No. 2 doubles with a 7-9 record.
Swan begins the year with three freshmen to add to the squad, as well. Andrew McCarthy (Cincinnati, Ohio/Indian Hill) was the No. 1 singles player on his team since his sophomore year, finished his career as a top 40 player in the U.S. and reached the quarterfinals in the Orange Bowl Tournament. In 2003 his team won the Ohio state championships, which he duplicated as the MVP in 2005.
David Seyferth (Ann Arbor, Mich./Ann Arbor Pioneer) was ranked in the top 150 in the U.S. as a senior and top eight in the Midwest. He finished as a quarterfinalist in the Midwestern Sectionals as a senior. Peter Rispoli (Naples, Fla./St. Stephen's (Texas)) won the singles, doubles and team championship as a senior in Florida, while being ranked in the top 40 in the U.S. as a senior. The freshman also won the Gator Bowl Tournament, reached the semifinals at the Easter Bowl Tournament in doubles and the finals at the Florida state sectionals.
