The Northwestern men’s tennis team narrowly avoided a weekend sweep by virtue of captain Brad Erickson’s three-set win in the final match of Sunday’s contest against Penn State.
The Wildcats (8-9, 2-5 Big Ten) salvaged a home weekend split in conference play with a 4-3 dual match victory over the Nittany Lions (9-8, 0-6 Big Ten) at the Vandy Christie Tennis Center. On Saturday, NU lost 4-3 indoors to No. 44 Ohio State (10-6, 4-1 Big Ten) at the Johnson Tennis Center.
Sunday’s victory over Penn State was a struggle for the Wildcats.
Things started out easy as the Cats took the doubles matches 2-1 to pick up a team point. NU’s No. 1 doubles pair of Brad Erickson and Joost Hol beat Jamie Gresh and Steven Van Der Westhuyzen 8-4. No. 3 doubles Jamie Sahara and Josh Axler beat Penn State’s Matt Nielsen and Brad Nudell by the same score.
But after that, Penn State claimed three of the first five singles matches. At No. 2 singles, Hol dug himself out of an early deficit and beat Martini. Gresh downed Axler at No. 3 singles and Nielsen beat NU’s No. 4 singles player Jackie Jenkins.
Penn State’s Chris DeStefano beat Russell Bennett at No. 5 while No. 6 singles player Sahara defeated Accardi.
And that fittingly set up the No. 1 singles contest as the deciding match. In it, Erickson scored a come-from-behind, three-set victory over Van Der Westhuyzen (6-7, 6-1, 6-3) to break the 3-3 tie and give NU its second conference victory.
Afterward, the Cats said they were lucky to come away with the win. The pressure of the final match was a new experience for many of the players.
“It was the first time we’ve had a last-guy-on-the-court situation this year,” coach Paul Torricelli said. “It was good to win and good for the young guys to see what that’s like. Brad handled it great. He really showed a lot of poise. He looked like a real experienced player out there.”
In his third year, Erickson is NU’s oldest and most experienced player. He has battled injury and sickness during the second half of the season that has made it tough for him to play his best tennis.
“I went so hard in the third (set). I think adrenaline kicked in and I picked it up due to the obvious (circumstances),” he said.
Though he overcame fatigue and a first-set loss, Erickson was not completely satisfied with the win.
“I was disappointed with the way I was hitting my forehand today, ” he said. “I made a lot of loose mistakes in the third set. I’ve played this guy before and I beat him a lot more handily when I played him before.”
Erickson and Hol both came back from tough singles losses Saturday and responded well against the Lions, easily winning their singles and doubles matches.
Both came out poorly Sunday but pulled their games together to help the Cats to victory, Torricelli said.
NU’s top three singles players all lost Saturday. Ohio State’s Chris Porter overpowered Erickson in No. 1 singles in two sets. Andrew Carlson edged Hol at No. 2 and Phil Metz blew out Jenkins at No. 3 singles 6-2, 6-0.
However the Wildcats swept the bottom three singles. At No. 4 singles, Axler came back to beat Derek DeFalco. Bennett took care of the Buckeyes’ Bob Wellstein at No. 5, and No. 6 Sahara beat Jon Scale in three sets.
Doubles matches did in NU, however, as Ohio State won two of three to claim the decisive team point. NU’s sole victory was an 8-3 win by Erickson and Hol over Carlson and Scale at No. 3.
In singles, Erickson battled throughout his match, but Porter’s strong serve and forehand took care of the NU junior.
“Porter’s a hard guy to play because you have to be physically on top of things,” Erickson said. “There are no excuses. He beat me. He was better than me. Things didn’t go my way at crucial points.”
The Erickson and Hol doubles victory gave the pair another quality win that could boost them into the NCAA tournament. Bennett’s straight-set victory over the older Wellstein was also a bright spot for the Cats, Torricelli said.
NU visits Minnesota Saturday, which will be a crucial game for the Cats’ tournament hopes.
“They are probably the second best team in the Big Ten,” Erickson said. “We have to just find a way to scrape out a 4-3. I think we’ll go into the Wisconsin and Iowa matches feeling like we can win those handily if we play well (Saturday).”
Torricelli also realizes the importance of Saturday’s match.
“We’re going to play a top-20 team in Minnesota and I tell these guys that we have a big win waiting for us. It’s going to happen,” Torricelli said.
The coach said his team is on the bubble for the NCAA field.
Erickson said his team needs to win two of its last three matches to have a shot. Nothing is for certain, though, as the Cats have to impress the tournament selectors in their last three showings and in the Big Ten tournament in late April.
“We’re not going to blow people away,” Torricelli said. “Everybody’s going to be a tough match for us.”
