Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Harvard
'Cats Outlast Harvard in First Road Contest, 4-3
2/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 9, 2007
Results
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Senior Willy Lock (Lima, Peru/Markham College) took a three-setter over Harvard's 93rd-ranked Chris Clayton to give the Wildcats a 4-3 win over the Crimson Friday night. The 40th-ranked 'Cats won the doubles point and freshman Alex Sanborn (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) and senior Christian Tempke (Wentorf, Germany/Gymnasium LohbrÜgge) won singles matches before Lock won the clincher.
The win improves Northwestern to 5-3 and the loss drops Harvard to 0-3 in dual matches.
"This was the best match of the year," head coach Paul Torricelli said. "Harvard is much better than its record indicates. They had us on our heels and I'm proud of how we fought back tonight."
The Wildcats captured the doubles points with wins at No. 1 and No. 2. The 27th-ranked pair of Lock and Matt Christian (Troy, Mich./Brother Rice) needed a tiebreaker to capture their match over Harvard's Hayes and Kumar, 9-8 (4).
"Willy and Matt were down a break almost the entire time," Torricelli said. "They just hung in there and turned it around."
At No. 2, Marc Dwyer (Peachtree City, Ga./University of Nebraska-Independent Study H.S.) and Sanborn downed the Crimson's Denenberg and Valkin, 8-5. Tempke and Juan Gomez (Mexico City, Mexico) fell at No. 3, but the 'Cats captured the pivotal doubles point.
"Doubles was key," Torricelli said. "Marc and Alex did a great job."
Harvard came back to take a 2-1 lead with wins at No. 4 and No. 3 singles. Gomez fell to Dan Nguyen, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 4 and Christian fell to Scott Denenberg, 6-3, 6-1, at No. 3.
NU tied the score at 2-2 when Sanborn cruised past Michael Kalfayan at No. 6, 6-0, 6-3, but the Crimson came right back with a win at No. 5. Gideon Valkin edged Dwyer, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
Tempke tied the score again with a three-set win over Ashwin Kumar, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, at No. 2. The match was in Lock's hands at No. 1 singles.
"Tempke played his best match of the year," Torricelli said. "I'm very proud of how he fought."
Lock needed three sets to top the 93rd-ranked Clayton, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
The Wildcats return home for a Valentine's Day contest against fifth-ranked Mississippi at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Players Mentioned
