CHAMPAIGN – For the Northwestern men’s tennis team, it was enough to be asked.

The NCAA tournament ended early for No. 45 NU (13-10), which suffered a 4-0 shutout at the hands of No. 38 Indiana State (25-10) on Saturday. But after being left out of last year’s championships, the Wildcats had already accomplished 2002 their goal of participating in postseason action.

The prize, if NU had won, would have been a Sunday match against host Illinois, the nation’s No. 3 team. But Indiana State got the treat of playing the Fighting Illini, who ended up blanking the Sycamores 4-0. Regional bracket winner Illinois now advances to the Sweet 16.

Despite being knocked out of the tournament, the Cats aren’t losing any sleep over Indiana State.

“There’s no shame in this loss,” head coach Paul Torricelli said. “Indiana State is an extremely talented team from top to bottom.”

In an attempt to avenge a 4-3 loss to Indiana State earlier this season, Torricelli organized a new lineup based “strictly on chemistry,” he said. The three NU doubles pairs differed from the usual duos, which had been struggling of late, but the Sycamores still took the doubles point 2-1.

The afternoon began well for NU, with senior Ryan Edlefsen and junior Russell Bennett dominating Indiana State’s Stefan Hirn and David O’Connell in the No. 1 spot. Unfortunately, the Cats’ jubilation ended there.

Senior Joost Hol and junior Jackie Jenkins paired up for the first time but lost 8-7 to Henry Choi and Dalibor Mihajlovic. Freshman roommates Tommy Hanus and Chuck Perrin also teamed up as doubles partners. They lost a tight match, 8-6, to Vedran Vidovic and Lovre Brajkovic. Although the Sycamores took the point, Torricelli was pleased with how the Cats performed.

“We played the best doubles that we had in two months,” he said. “It just didn’t fall our way.”

But losing the doubles point might not have been the most troublesome aspect of Saturday’s doubles competition.