In only its second road match of the season, Northwestern (8-1) traveled to South Bend, Ind., to face No. 25 Notre Dame. The Wildcats walked off the courts with a loss, but they didn’t go down easily.
NU got off to a rough start, losing the doubles point for the first time in its nine matches. The pairs of freshman Tobias Reitz and senior Marc Dwyer, and graduate student Alexander Thams and sophomore Andrew McCarthy, both fell to their opponents by a score of 8-4. But at No. 2 doubles, junior Alex Sanborn and freshman Josh Graves continued their undefeated start, cruising by Stephen Havens and Casey Watt 8-2.
“We played a really great match,” Graves said. “Probably the best match we’ve played all year. … Everything just went right for us.”
Down 1-0, NU started the singles portion of the dual with a tough task. The Cats were playing their first two ranked opponents of the year in No. 18 Brett Helgeson and No. 122 Daniel Stahl. Sanborn, at No. 4 singles, was the first match to finish. Sanborn lost the first set by a score of 7-6, only the second time he has dropped the first set this year. Sanborn lost the second set 6-2, resulting in his first loss of the season in singles. Down 2-0, NU scored its first point of the night at No. 6 singles, where Graves beat Samuel Keeton 6-4, 6-2. Next off the court was No. 3 Thams, who fell to Daniel Stahl 6-4, 7-5.
The Cats won their next two matches in impressive fashion. First, Reitz came back against Havens to win in three sets for the first time this season 6-7, 6-4, 6-4. At No. 1, Marc Dwyer scored a win – NU’s first over a ranked opponent – by beating Helgeson 6-4, 1-6, 7-5.
“I think maybe it was the best win of Marc’s career,” said coach Arvid Swan. “It kept us in the match. He’s a senior, he’s our number one player, and he played like it.”
With the score tied 3-3, all eyes turned to the No. 5 singles match between freshman Eric Spector and Niall Fitzgerald. After easily winning the first set 6-1, Spector dropped the second 2-6. Spector fought hard but could not pull out the third set, losing 7-5.
After suffering their first loss of the season, the Cats bounce back into action, taking on Western Michigan on Saturday and Harvard on Sunday at home.
While the Cats did lose the match, the day wasn’t a complete loss.
“This was a big match for us,” McCarthy said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way, but we’re still making tremendous strides every day, and we can see it now in these dual matches.”
