Thursday’s scenario was all too familiar for Northwestern men’s tennis player Russell Bennett.
The freshman beat Eric Kozlowski at No. 6 singles Sunday to clinch NU’s regular-season finale victory over Iowa. In the rematch Thursday, Bennett again had the chance to seal a Wildcats victory and send his team into the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament in Bloomington, Ind.
And this time he was the last man on the court with the overall match tied at 3.
Bennett came through. Down 5-4 in the third set, he broke serve and won the next two games to clinch the 4-3 team victory for the Cats (11-10, 5-6 Big Ten). The victory sent Iowa (5-16, 1-10) home and NU into a matchup with No. 2 Minnesota Friday.
Though Bennett admitted he won ugly, he was still happy with the individual and team performance.
“The team played pretty well,” Bennett said. “We needed someone to step up and Thursday it was me. Today it will be a different guy.”
Bennett won the first set 7-5, lost the second 6-0 and said he knew the third was huge for the team.
“I was pretty relaxed going in,” Bennett said. “Then I had the realization that everyone was watching the third set. I just gutted it out. The pressure wasn’t too bad.
“Down 5-4 I got real fired up. It could have been the last game of the season for us. The guys were backing me and I was feeding off them.”
Bennett said he thought back to how his teammates had handled the last-man-on-the-court situation to pull him through the third set. And toward the end of the match he started to pick up on his opponent’s patterns from Sunday.
“Russell couldn’t hit the broad side of the barn (in the second set),” NU coach Paul Torricelli said. “Down in the third set, he came back and from that point on he played real solid.”
Though it was Bennett who clinched the match for NU, a doubles sweep proved to be the deciding factor.
“It was a very different match than Sunday, ” NU coach Paul Torricelli said. “We did much better in doubles–we got off to a good start.”
Brad Erickson and Joost Hol extended their record to 20-7 with an 8-6 victory over Tyler Cleveland and Stuart Walters at No. 1 doubles. Torricelli said the players picked on Walters, the weaker of the two, with good results. And breaking Cleveland late in the set was the key to the NU victory, he said.
Bennett and Jackie Jenkins easily won at No. 2, and Axler and Jenkins were leading 7-4 when their match was abandoned because the Cats already had clinched the team point.
In singles, Erickson lost his rematch 6-4, 7-6 with Cleveland at No. 1. Hol, returning to his usual No. 2 spot, took down Iowa’s Jake Wilson in straight sets. Josh Axler gave up only two games in his straight-set victory for the Cats at No. 3 singles. And Jenkins and Jamie Sahara lost at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively.
NU players rushed Bennett after his match-clinching victory. The Cats have little time to celebrate, however, as No. 2 Minnesota (20-5, 9-1) comes calling at 9 a.m. today.
The Golden Gophers had a first-round bye and should be ready to face the Cats, whom they beat 5-2 at home on April 15.
“We have to win the doubles point,” Torricelli said. “Their singles are real tough top to bottom. One through six — there is no place there where we can have a strength over the other player.”
Bennett said his team will be ready for the challenge.
“We should be super pumped up,” Bennett said. “Every match could be our last.”
