It was a busy weekend for Northwestern tennis, with Wildcats players participating in three tournaments.
The men’s team got its fair share of Cardinals, with a Friday match-up against Louisville and a Sunday meeting with Ball State.
No. 51 NU (2-1) fell to the No. 32 Cardinals of Louisville (1-0) 5-2, taking only two of six singles matches and dropping both doubles matches. The only Cats to defeat Cardinals were junior Christian Tempke in the number one match and junior Matt Christian in the fifth match.
Tempke downed Damar Johnson, the No. 33 player in the country, in straight sets (6-1, 7-6) to improve to 8-4 in singles play. Christian brought his singles record up to .500 with a 6-4, 7-5 triumph over Robert Rotaru.
The loss dropped NU to 1-1 on the season, but they did not have to wait long for redemption. A Sunday trip to Muncie, Ind., proved to be the remedy the Cats needed, as they defeated Ball State 5-2. Though Tempke lost his match, his teammates provided plenty of support in capturing the remaining five singles matches.
“(Tempke) didn’t play quite as well (on Sunday), but I thought overall he had a really good weekend, and I think that Friday night really shows he can be a number one player,” coach Paul Torricelli said.
Willy Lock, playing at the number two position for NU, was among those who won his match against Ball State (2-1). The junior overcame a 5-1 deficit in a first-set tiebreaker to take the set and match from the Cardinals’ Joe Epkey, 7-6 (7), 4-6, 6-3.
NU was swept in doubles competition, going 0-3, but it amounted to only one point for overwhelmed Ball State.
Members of the women’s tennis team had a successful showing at the National Collegiate Tennis Championship. The doubles team of Cristelle Grier and Alexis Prousis, ranked No. 8 in the nation, made it to the finals of the tournament before losing to Southern California’s Luana Magnani and Lindsey Nelson, 8-3.
Sophomore Alexis Conill and Freshman Georgia Rose joined their highly-touted teammates in the doubles semifinals. The duo advanced through two rounds of play before falling to the team of Prousis and Grier, 8-3.
In singles action, tournament No. 3-seed Grier fell in the semifinals to Whitney Deason of Stanford 6-3, 6-2 after having defeated Deason’s teammate Jessica Nguyen in the quarterfinals 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
Prousis also found her way to the quarterfinals, only to lose to tournament No. 8-seed Diane Mattias of USC by a score of 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Reach Ben Larrison at [email protected]
