Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Wildcats Downed By 11th-Ranked Irish, 7-0
1/31/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Jan. 31, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern stayed with 11th-ranked Notre Dame in doubles and on several singles courts, but fell 7-0 to the Fighting Irish Thursday at Combe Tennis Center. Alex Sanborn and Peter Rispoli both forced third sets in singles.
With the loss, Northwestern falls to 4-2 on the year. Notre Dame improves to 3-1.
Notre Dame swept all three doubles matches, but the Wildcats fought to the end on every court. At No. 2, the Wildcat pair of Alexander Thams and Rispoli took an early break to go up 2-1, but the team of Stephen Havens and Andrew Roth broke back in the next game and then took a break to go up 4-2. The Irish went on to win the match, 8-3.
At No. 1, the duo of Sanborn and Marc Dwyer stayed on serve with Brett Helgeson and Sheeva Parbhu until the Irish took a break at 5-3. Notre Dame took the match, 8-5. The match gave Notre Dame the doubles point.
At No. 3, the Notre Dame pair of Tyler Davis and Santiago Montoya took an early lead over Juan Gomez and David Seyferth, but the Wildcats managed to be the last match finished despite the early deficit. The pair was looking for a break to close to within one game, but fell 8-6.
At No. 1 singles, Dwyer faced the 11th-ranked Helgeson and despite putting up battles in several games, fell in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2. Notre Dame went up 3-0 with a win at No. 6 when Daniel Stahl defeated Seyferth in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.
The Irish clinched the match with a win at No. 5 singles. Gomez had multiple set points in the first set, but fell to David Anderson in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4.
At No. 4, Rispoli captured the first set over Havens, 6-2, but fell in a second-set tiebreaker, 7-2, to force a match tiebreaker with the dual already decided. Rispoli fell 10-2 in the superbreaker and Notre Dame took a 5-0 lead.
After Rispoli's battle wrapped up, there were still two tightly-contested matches still left on the courts at No. 2 and No. 3.
At No. 2, Parbhu took the first set from Thams, 6-4, but the graduate student for the Wildcats managed to force a second-set tiebreaker. The "first to seven" formatted tiebreaker needed extra points to determine a winner. Parbhu won the breaker 10-8 to avoid a match tiebreaker and give ND a 6-0 lead in the dual.
All eyes turned to the match at No. 3 singles where Sanborn, who had fallen in the first set, 6-3, but took the second set, 6-2, was trailing 5-4 in the third. Sanborn held serve to make Roth have to serve for the match. Sanborn fought to force 40-30 in the final game, but fell 6-4 in the third set and the 11th-ranked Irish took the dual, 7-0.
The Wildcats return to action at 11 a.m. Saturday against Bradley at the Combe Tennis Center.
Doubles
No. 1 - Helgeson/Parbhu (ND) def. Dwyer/Sanborn (NU), 8-5
No. 2 - Havens/Roth (ND) def. Rispoli/THams (NU), 8-3
No. 3 - Davis/Montoya (ND) def. Gomez/Seyferth (NU), 8-5
Singles
No. 1 - Helgeson (ND) def. Dwyer (NU), 6-3, 6-2
No. 2 - Parbhu (ND) def. Thams (NU), 6-4, 7-6 (10-8)
No. 3 - Roth (ND) def. Sanborn (NU), 6-3, 2-6, 6-4
No. 4 - Havens (ND) def. Rispoli (NU), 2-6, 7-6 (2), 1-0 (2)
No. 5 - Anderson (ND) def. Gomez (NU), 7-5, 6-4
No. 6 - Stahl (ND) def. Seyferth (NU), 6-4, 6-3
