Confucius and Vince Lombardi have more in common than you may think. Yes, they were both great teachers and they’re both dead. But more importantly, they both had famous sayings about getting back up after you have fallen.
Northwestern seemed to take these timeless lessons to heart this weekend.
NU (3-1) lost its dual against Louisville (1-0) Friday night, 6-1, but was able to rebound and beat Ball State (0-2) by the same score Sunday.
The Wildcats’ first loss of the season came against Louisville, a team NU’s coach Arvid Swan said is “much better than (its) ranking.” Though the final score looks lopsided, the dual was actually much closer than it appears.
NU started the dual by losing all three of the doubles matches, although it didn’t have more than a three-game deficit in any of them. After the close doubles round, the Cats’ struggles continued in singles play. Sophomore captain Alex Sanborn was the only NU player to win a singles match, beating Louisville’s Tye Myers 6-2, 6-3 in the No. 4 spot.
Similarly to the doubles matches, the singles matches were much closer than the final scores would indicate.
Freshmen Pete Rispoli and David Seyferth both played in tight matches that required extra games. Rispoli lost in the No. 2 spot to David Simon 7-6, 7-6 and Seyferth lost in the No. 6 spot against Robert Rotaru 7-5, 7-5.
The Cats’ first loss didn’t just create frowns and pouts though. Swan said the experience helped them learn and adjust for their following match against Ball State.
“On Saturday we practiced hard and tried to work on the things that we didn’t do quite as well in doubles at Louisville,” Swan said. “We worked a little bit in terms of being more aggressive on the court.”
The doubles point at Ball State was equally close, but this time NU came out on top. Sanborn and junior Marc Dwyer won the first doubles match against Ball State’s Jose Perdomo and Eduardo Pavia (8-4) in the No. 1 spot. The doubles point went to the Cats after Rispoli and graduate student Alexander Thams won their close match against Ball State’s Joe Vallee and Shaun Bussert (9-8) (5) in the No. 2 spot.
Dwyer said he was pleased with the team’s ability to bounce back and was looking forward to playing again.
“The doubles point was really key today, ” Dwyer said. “Pete and Alex Thams really stepped up. They came back after being down and it really showed their maturity.”
After winning the doubles point, NU went on to win all but one of the singles matches. Seyferth won his first match of the season, defeating Ball State’s Jimmy Brannon 7-6 (0), 1-6, 1-0 (2) in the No. 6 spot. The Cats’ lone defeat came from the No. 1 position, where Thams retired during the third set.
The team’s next match comes against Butler (0-2) on Friday at the Combe Tennis Center. Looking to build on its improvements from this weekend, the team has already begun thinking about its next opponent.
“I think what we need to work on for next week is endurance … and fitness,” Rispoli said. “As a team, (we need to take) every point and (play) it very seriously.”
Reach Franklin Kao at [email protected].
