By Franklin KaoThe Daily Northwestern
Freshman Alex Sanborn shined all weekend as Northwestern defeated DePaul 6-1 on Friday and lost to Louisville 3-4 on Sunday.
The inexperienced Sanborn struggled at first against DePaul (1-1), losing his doubles match with teammate Alexey Evstratenkov. Despite that loss, NU (1-1) salvaged the doubles point with wins by the No. 27 pair of Willy Lock and Matt Christian, and by Juan Gomez and Christian Tempke.
Sanborn came back strong in his individual match at the fifth spot, defeating DePaul’s Alasdair Graetz 6-4, 6-3.
“Before the match, I was (a little) nervous; (I had some) butterflies in my stomach,” Sanborn said. “I started missing a lot of my shots … (but) I just calmed down, listened to my coach and started getting a gameplan together.”
Team co-captain Tempke was the first to score for the Wildcats in the singles round decisively defeating Austin Doerner 6-0, 6-2. Lock ensured the victory for the Cats, beating DePaul’s George Wang 7-5, 6-3. Christian and Gomez each won for NU at the third and fourth spot, respecively.
Although NU lost Sunday against Louisville (1-0), Sanborn once again performed well, winning in singles 6-4, 7-5.
“I knew what to expect, so I wasn’t as nervous beforehand,” said Sanborn. “I still started off a little slow, but I picked it up and I started playing a lot better.”
NU ended up taking the doubles point as Tempke and Gomez defeated David Simon and Kenneth Nordheim (8-2).
Co-captain Christian was the only NU player other than Sanborn to win his individual match.
While Lock, Tempke, Gomez and Dwyer all lost in singles, only three of the 14 sets played were decided by more than two games.
Dwyer and Nordheim reached a tiebreaker in the third set of their match. Nordheim pulled out a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) win and delivered Louisville its first victory of the season.
With two matches under his belt, Sanborn’s main area of focus will be to work on his serve. Sanborn, who now has a 2-0 individual record and praise from head coach Paul Torricelli, seems to have a bright future ahead of him at NU.
“[Sanborn] played like a senior,” Torricelli said. “You want guys to learn how to compete and not beat themselves, and Alex does not beat himself, you have to beat him.”
Reach Franklin Kao at [email protected].
