Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Indiana
Doubles Proves Crucial as `Cats Fall to Hoosiers, 4-3
3/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 7, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- After a near upset of No. 7 Illinois Friday evening, Northwestern (11-4, 0-2) lost a 4-3 dual to Indiana Saturday afternoon. The two teams split singles, but doubles proved to be the difference at IU Varsity Tennis Center as Indiana (8-7, 1-0) pulled out two of three doubles matches.
At No. 2, Alex Sanborn (Houston, Texas) and Joshua Graves (Milwaukee, Wis./Nicolet) fell to the Hoosiers' Lachlan Ferguson and Stephen Vogl, 8-4. Indiana clinched the point with an 8-4 win at No. 1 by Santiago Gruter and Jeremy Langer over NU's Marc Dwyer (Peachtree City, Ga./University of Nebraska - Independent Study H.S.) and Tobias Reitz (Reinbeck, Germany/Sachsenwaldschule Reinbeck).
The NU tandem of Andrew McCarthy (Cincinnati, Ohio/Indian Hills) and Alexander Thams (Stockholm, Sweden/Enskilda Gymnasiet) proved too tough for Maxime Armengaud and Guy Kubi at No. 3 with an 8-6 victory.
Indiana built on its lead with a Ferguson victory over Wildcat senior Marc Dwyer at No. 1. Northwestern got on the board with an easy 6-3, 6-0 win by Alexander Thams over Indiana's Guy Kubi at No. 3.
The Wildcats tied it up at 2-all thanks to a Joshua Graves 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Jeremy Langer at No. 4. With three matches still left on court, both teams had chances as all three went to deciding third sets.
Indiana's Armengaud pulled out a tight first set over Sanborn at No. 5 in a tiebreaker. The Wildcat junior fought back to take the second, 6-3, but the Hoosier proved too tough with a 6-2 win in the third frame.
IU took the 3-2 advantage and did not let it go, clinching the dual at No. 2 singles where Hoosier sophomore Santiago Gruter took down Tobias Reitz, 6-4 in the third set.
Sophomore Andrew McCarthy won the final point for the `Cats in a close match of his own against Will Kendall. After dropping the first set, McCarthy stormed back to take the second and it came down to a third set breaker, which the Wildcat pulled out.
Northwestern has a two week break before traveling to the Southwest to take on Northern Arizona and Arizona on March 23 and March 25, respectively.
