Northwestern Concludes Run at ITA Midwest Regionals

10/26/2015 1:37:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Carsten Parmenter

ITA Midwest Regional Championships Home Page

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Strong Kirchheimer highlighted Northwestern's run at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships by reaching the semifinals of the singles main draw.

Kirchheimer played the No. 2 overall seed, and 29th-ranked player in the country, Chris Diaz of Ohio State, tough on Monday morning in the semifinal round but ultimately fell 7-6 (6), 7-5.

"Strong competed at a high level throughout the tournament," head coach Arvid Swan said. "He was able to maintain control of points, and he served extremely well. He had chances today to advance to the finals but give credit to (Chris) Diaz for winning the match."

The Northwestern junior won three singles matches, knocking off a top-50 player in the process. Kirchheimer also partnered with Fedor Baev to win two doubles matches in the tournament. That duo advanced to the quarterfinals of the doubles main draw as the overall fifth-seed.

Other Wildcat winners at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships were Fedor Baev (2-1), Ben Vandixhorn (2-1), Alp Horoz (2-1) and Sam Shropshire (1-1). Freshman Jason Seidman won three matches in the qualifying draw to advance to the main draw.

"I was pleased with the effort and energy put into the matches," Swan said. "We have a good understanding of what we need to work on going forward. Our focus is on continual improvement as we head toward the dual match season."

The Wildcats have a week off before returning to action at the Big Ten Singles and Doubles Championships Nov. 6-9 in Iowa City, Iowa.