By Liana B. BakerThe Daily Northwestern

It was deja-vu for Northwestern players on Sunday as they lost 7-0 for the second Sunday in a row, this time to No. 24 Wake Forest (2-0).

“We had our (butts) kicked,” said NU coach Paul Torricelli.

Granted, NU split the weekend series. They beat No. 42 San Diego (1-3) on Friday night 6-1 and now stand at 3-3 this season.

To accommodate the women’s matches, the men’s team played singles at 9 a.m. Sunday, four hours earlier than usual. From NU, only senior Matt Christian took his first set from his opponent, Andrew Hamar, at the No. 3 singles spot.

“He started well and I hung in there after the first set but I thought he played the better tennis,” said Hamar, Wake Forest’s co-captain.

Hamar won the second set and then beat Christian in a third set tiebreaker 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).

Senior Christian Tempke in the No. 1 spot had a battle of his own. He faced Todd Paul, the fourth-ranked player in the nation. Tempke beat Paul last year but was humbled this time around.

“To be honest, in college tennis, I’ve never played someone who didn’t have any unforced errors in a set,” Tempke said. “He played really big.”

Tempke said he thought Paul’s backhand was average but could not handle his forehand or strong serves. Tempke, who said he likes playing lefties, did not have trouble getting used to his left-handed opponent even though NU has no left handed players on the squad to practice with.

Willy Lock, on the other hand, at first found it difficult playing the lefty Cory Parr.

“It takes getting used to,” Lock said. “The spins are all different.”

Lock said he had had his chances in the first set but then Parr, “started hitting winners all over the place.” In one of the closer matches of the morning, Parr beat Lock in two sets, 7-5, 6-1.

Despite the score, Wake Forest coach Jeff Zinn had good things to say about NU.

“They’re a very talented team,” he said. “Coach T. has a veteran group of players with Lock, Tempke and Christian. We knew we had to come ready today.”