Sunday, January 31
Durham, NC
11 a.m.
Northwestern
5
at
2
Duke
Northwestern Wins Big in Top-25 Battle
1/31/2016 3:01:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Box Score (PDF)
DURHAM, N.C. – Northwestern beat its second top-25 team of the early 2016 season with a 5-2 win at No. 24 Duke Sunday afternoon.
The 21st-ranked Wildcats improved to 5-1 with their second straight 4-0 clinch.
"Great team win today," head coach Arvid Swan said. "We competed extremely well in singles and doubles. Two doubles teams came up big to clinch the doubles point, and we kept the momentum going into singles."
Chicago's Big Ten Team jumped out to a 5-0 lead on the road with the doubles point and four straight singles wins, three of which came in straight sets.
Doubles play came down to a nail-biting finish at No. 2. After a Northwestern win at No. 3 by Mihir Kumar and Alp Horoz and a Duke victory at No. 1, Konrad Zieba and Sam Shropshire won a 7-5 tiebreak to secure a 7-6 win and the first point of the match.
The Wildcats took off from there.
No. 55 Strong Kirchheimer made it look easy at No. 3 with a 6-0, 6-0 shutout in a return to his home state of North Carolina. Alp Horoz, playing at No. 6 for the first time this year, won handily, and No. 50 Sam Shropshire finished things off with a 6-3, 7-5 victory at No. 2.
The teams finished the remaining matches, where Fedor Baev bounced back from a first set defeat to beat Vincent Lin in three sets. Duke won each of the final two matches to bring the score a little closer.
The Wildcats are 4-1 this year against teams in the ITA top-50 with six of their next nine matches coming against such opponents. Two of the other three fall just outside of that mark.
Northwestern remains on the road next weekend, taking on No. 56 Rice and No. 47 Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y.
#21 Northwestern 5, #24 Duke 2
Singles
No. 1 – #12 Nicolas Alvarez (Duke) def. #16 Konrad Zieba (NU), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
No. 2 – #50 Sam Shropshire (NU) def. #102 T.J. Pura (Duke), 6-3, 7-5 *
No. 3 – #55 Strong Kirchheimer (NU) def. Catalin Mateas (Duke), 6-0, 6-0
No. 4 – Fedor Baev (NU) def. Vincent Lin (Duke), 0-6, 6-4, 6-2
No. 5 – Adrian Chamdani (Duke) def. Ben Vandixhorn (NU), 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
No. 6 – Alp Horoz (NU) def. Josh Levine (Duke), 6-3, 6-3
Order of Finish: 3, 6, 2*, 4, 1, 5
Doubles
No. 1 – Alvarez/Lin (Duke) def. #52 Baev/Kirchheimer (NU), 7-5
No. 2 – Zieba/Shropshire (NU) def. Levine/Dickerson (Duke), 7-6 (5) *
No. 3 – Kumar/Horoz (NU) def. Mateas/Pura (Duke), 6-3
Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2*
DURHAM, N.C. – Northwestern beat its second top-25 team of the early 2016 season with a 5-2 win at No. 24 Duke Sunday afternoon.
The 21st-ranked Wildcats improved to 5-1 with their second straight 4-0 clinch.
"Great team win today," head coach Arvid Swan said. "We competed extremely well in singles and doubles. Two doubles teams came up big to clinch the doubles point, and we kept the momentum going into singles."
Chicago's Big Ten Team jumped out to a 5-0 lead on the road with the doubles point and four straight singles wins, three of which came in straight sets.
Doubles play came down to a nail-biting finish at No. 2. After a Northwestern win at No. 3 by Mihir Kumar and Alp Horoz and a Duke victory at No. 1, Konrad Zieba and Sam Shropshire won a 7-5 tiebreak to secure a 7-6 win and the first point of the match.
The Wildcats took off from there.
No. 55 Strong Kirchheimer made it look easy at No. 3 with a 6-0, 6-0 shutout in a return to his home state of North Carolina. Alp Horoz, playing at No. 6 for the first time this year, won handily, and No. 50 Sam Shropshire finished things off with a 6-3, 7-5 victory at No. 2.
The teams finished the remaining matches, where Fedor Baev bounced back from a first set defeat to beat Vincent Lin in three sets. Duke won each of the final two matches to bring the score a little closer.
The Wildcats are 4-1 this year against teams in the ITA top-50 with six of their next nine matches coming against such opponents. Two of the other three fall just outside of that mark.
Northwestern remains on the road next weekend, taking on No. 56 Rice and No. 47 Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y.
#21 Northwestern 5, #24 Duke 2
Singles
No. 1 – #12 Nicolas Alvarez (Duke) def. #16 Konrad Zieba (NU), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
No. 2 – #50 Sam Shropshire (NU) def. #102 T.J. Pura (Duke), 6-3, 7-5 *
No. 3 – #55 Strong Kirchheimer (NU) def. Catalin Mateas (Duke), 6-0, 6-0
No. 4 – Fedor Baev (NU) def. Vincent Lin (Duke), 0-6, 6-4, 6-2
No. 5 – Adrian Chamdani (Duke) def. Ben Vandixhorn (NU), 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
No. 6 – Alp Horoz (NU) def. Josh Levine (Duke), 6-3, 6-3
Order of Finish: 3, 6, 2*, 4, 1, 5
Doubles
No. 1 – Alvarez/Lin (Duke) def. #52 Baev/Kirchheimer (NU), 7-5
No. 2 – Zieba/Shropshire (NU) def. Levine/Dickerson (Duke), 7-6 (5) *
No. 3 – Kumar/Horoz (NU) def. Mateas/Pura (Duke), 6-3
Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2*
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