By Pritish Behuria
The Daily Northwestern
After a disappointing 8-13 season in which Northwestern has won just three Big Ten contests, the No. 61 Wildcats return to the Vandy Christie Tennis Center on Sunday for their regular season finale against No. 74 Michigan State.
Seniors Matt Christian, Willy Lock and Christian Tempke will step onto the court for the final home matches of their careers.
Over the last four years, the three players have combined for a dual match record of 132-118 in singles and 107-106 in doubles.
“They’ve all been factors in both singles and doubles throughout their careers and it’s important they leave with a win,” coach Paul Torricelli said.
It should be a particularly special day for Tempke, who will receive the first ever Arlie Weiss Memorial Sportsmanship Award before the match.
“Christian has been a real gentleman throughout his career,” Torricelli said. “He’s always played near the top of the lineup and conducted himself really well. He’s very worthy of being the first recipient of this award.”
The seniors will be looking to put a nice ending on a regular season filled with inconsistency.
Tempke won five straight singles matches at one point but then lost eight of his next nine before beating Iowa’s Bart van Monsjou last Sunday.
The doubles pairing of Lock and Christian also snapped a losing skid against Iowa, winning for the first time in six matches. The duo has not had a winning streak of more than two games this season.
With the seniors and the rest of the squad performing inconsistently, the Cats have suffered 13 defeats in dual action this season, their most since 1991.
“The key for us was we were inconsistent throughout the lineup,” Torricelli said. “Getting everybody to play well on a particular day has eluded us.”
The Cats have also played six teams in the top 10 this season.
“It’s the toughest schedule in our history,” Torricelli said. “Guys had really tough challenges, and much of the win-loss record is due to that and the parity in the Big Ten this year.”
NU narrowly missed victories multiple times, losing to Louisville, Penn State and Indiana by 4-3 scores.
Torricelli identified these matches as crucial points in the season that really hurt the team.
“Sometimes, you can go down to a handful of points, and that can be the difference between a very good season and a season below expectations,” Torricelli said. “Baseball is a game of inches, and it’s true in tennis as well.”
The Cats’ opponent Sunday, Michigan State, has had its own problems this season but has turned it around of late.
The Spartans are coming off a weekend in which they posted their first two Big Ten wins of the season, cruising past Iowa 5-2 and upsetting No. 41 Penn State 4-3.
“Michigan State is going to be a really tough team to beat,” Tempke said. “They beat Penn State last weekend, and we lost to them earlier this season. But I’m really excited for the weekend, and it’s the last time in front of the home crowd, and hopefully we’ll win.”
Reach Pritish Behuria at [email protected].
