On another Sunday filled with domination, the story was the same for the Wildcats. Almost.
Coming off a 4-3 victory over Middle Tennessee State, Northwestern (8-0) took eight days off before facing Ball State and Lewis at the Combe Tennis Center.
NU faced Ball State in the fall at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic but came away with mixed results. On Sunday, however, things went smoothly. The Cats struggled at first, but managed to win all three doubles matches and take the doubles point for the seventh time this season. In singles, freshman Eric Spector, graduate student Alex Thams, junior Alex Sanborn and freshman Josh Graves quickly finished off their opponents. The top two singles players, senior Marc Dwyer and freshman Tobias Reitz had more difficulty. Dwyer and Ball State’s Jose Perdomo split the first two sets, but Dwyer went on to win in the third set tiebreaker 10-7. Reitz and Eduardo Pavia played a close match, but after two sets, it was Pavia who emerged victorious by a score of 7-6, 6-3.
“I was happy beating Ball State 6-1. I think they’re a quality team, one of the best teams in the MAC,” said coach Arvid Swan. “It was a pretty convincing win.”
As if its 6-1 victory wasn’t enough, several hours later, NU produced its most dominant win of the season. Against Division-II Lewis, NU burst out of the gate, winning the three doubles matches by a combined score of 24-4. In singles, Spector, Sanborn, Graves and senior Philip Kafka each won their matches by a score of 6-0, 6-0. Reitz and Dwyer had slightly more trouble, winning 6-2, 6-4 and 6-2, 3-6, 10-2, respectively.
With the win against Lewis, the Cats’ record stands at 8-0, which amounts to one win more than they compiled all of last season. But from here, the schedule gets very tough. NU travels to South Bend, Ind., on Thursday to face No. 25 Notre Dame, and then it welcomes Western Michigan and Harvard to Evanston next weekend.
Still, as they prepare for their toughest stretch in the schedule thus far, the Cats aren’t going to make any drastic modifications.
“I don’t think we’re going to focus that much on trying to change anything,” Thams said. “It’s more just focusing on winning, competing hard, and getting ready to play.”
