By Pritish BehuriaThe Daily Northwestern
As large numbers of North Campus residents flooded North Beach, Northwestern followed suit by moving outdoors to face Michigan State (11-15, 2-8 Big Ten) in what turned out to be a dominating display by the Wildcats on Senior Day.
The Wildcats (9-13, 4-6) crushed the Spartans 5-2 in a dual that was never in doubt.
The afternoon’s action began with the Cats dominating doubles action, winning all three matches.
The duo of freshman Alex Sanborn and sophomore Marc Dwyer posted its first win at No. 1 doubles, easing past the Spartans’ Michael Flowers and Alex Forger, 8-1.
Seniors Matt Christian and Willy Lock reveled in their new position at No. 2 doubles, disposing of the Spartans’ John Allare and Tyler Sauerbrey, 8-5.
“It’s working really well,” coach Paul Torricelli said. “Matt and Willy needed a break, and they were struggling. It’s good for them to get a few wins.”
After spending most of the spring at No. 1 doubles, Christian and Lock moved to No. 2 two weekends ago and have gone 2-1 at their new spot.
Senior Christian Tempke and junior Juan Gomez stretched their winning streak to four matches, beating the Spartans’ Britton Steele and Brendan Kinkopf, 8-6.
“They should be good at No. 3,” Torricelli said. “Christian and Juan are two very talented players, and it’s great for us to have them playing there.”
The Spartans missed their top singles player, Nick Rinks, this weekend. His absence was obvious, as the Cats got off to a dominating start in singles action.
Christian led the way for NU, as he blanked Sauerbrey in his last home match.
“Matt played really well,” Torricelli said. “It meant a lot to the seniors. They were looking forward to it the whole week and it was good to get the win for them.”
Dwyer won his No. 3 singles match, and Lock clinched the dual for the Cats, beating Forger 6-2, 6-3.
The win stretched Lock’s singles winning streak to three matches.
“It’s good to get the wins,” Lock said. “It was Senior Day and it was special. But we have more matches to go and it’s important to keep winning.”
Sophomore Alexey Evstratenkov replaced Sanborn at No. 6 singles and posted his first win of the dual season in two matches. He beat the Spartans’ Jason Norville 6-4, 6-3.
Torricelli said he wanted to give Evstratenkov a chance and was impressed with how quickly he established control of the match.
With the dual sealed at 5-0, Tempke and Gomez both fell in third-set super-tiebreakers.
With the win, NU secured the No. 8 seed in the Big Ten tournament.
They will face the Spartans again in the tournament Thursday. But with Rinks back in the lineup, Torricelli said the Cats won’t have it as easy.
“On Thursday, they’ll have Nick back and it’ll be a significant change from the team we faced today, ” Torricelli said.
Reach Pritish Behuria at [email protected].
