Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

39° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Men’s Tennis: NU begins Big Ten tourney with bye

Last season, No. 44 Northwestern came into the Big Ten Tournament and promptly lost 4-0 to Indiana in the first round. The Wildcats are guaranteed to advance farther than that this time around.

NU (18-7, 6-4 Big Ten) split its final two regular season matches to earn a bye in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Before Sunday’s win over Penn State (13-12, 4-6), the Cats were in a three-way tie, with No. 48 Michigan and No. 53 Indiana, for fourth in the conference after they fell to No. 2 Ohio State (27-1, 10-0) on Friday.

Fortunately for the Cats, the Wolverines defeated the Hoosiers 6-1 on Sunday, making it only a two-way tie for fourth in the conference. Since NU lost to Michigan in the regular season, it will get the No. 5 seed in the tournament and will face the Wolverines in the second round.

NU coach Arvid Swan said the bye is a nice reward and the team looks forward to getting its revenge on a Michigan team that narrowly defeated it, 4-3, in Evanston on March 29.

“We lost to those two teams early in the year, but in very close matches,” said Swan, who at the time did not know if the Cats would face Michigan or Indiana. “Hopefully we’ll look at it as an opportunity to play one of those teams again.”

Hopefully for NU, the outcome will be more like the 5-2 win at Penn State and less like the 7-0 defeat suffered at Ohio State.

Despite the loss, the Cats were close to taking the doubles point against the Buckeyes, but faltered late in the matches. NU has won the doubles point in 19 of its 25 matches this season.

NU finished the job against Penn State, taking all three doubles matches to set the tone for singles play. Senior Marc Dwyer and graduate student Alexander Thams lost at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, but the remaining players pulled through to give the Cats momentum heading into the postseason.

“It was really important to finish strong in the regular season and win the last match after losing to Ohio State,” said freshman Tobias Reitz, who won at No. 3 singles versus Penn State after not playing singles against the Cats’ previous two opponents. “We’ve gained confidence to be ready for the Big Ten tournament.”

With the Big Ten tournament less than a week away, the team is not going to radically change anything, but rather stay focused on its goals and prepare for the upcoming matches.

“For now, we’re just going to think about getting ourselves physically ready,” freshman Joshua Graves said. “We’ll just take care of our bodies and get ready to go. There’s nothing we really necessarily need work on before the Big Ten tournament.”

The 6-4 conference record is the best mark for the Cats since the 2005 season, when they finished with the same record and also made the NCAA tournament.

While the team is proud of its conference turnaround and overall accomplishments this year, the postseason will be a clean slate for all teams.

“In the postseason, everyone wants to win now,” Reitz said. “Every match we’re going into could potentially be our last. We’re going to go into matches and really want to win and get as far as possible.”

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Men’s Tennis: NU begins Big Ten tourney with bye