Men’s Tennis

The Big Ten Tournament did not end the way the Wildcats would have liked.

No. 4-seeded Northwestern (20-9, 8-3 Big Ten) was knocked out of the conference tournament in the semifinals on Saturday. After taking down No. 5-seeded Indiana (18-11, 6-5) on Friday, the Cats did not have enough to beat the host and eventual champion of the tournament, No. 1-seeded Illinois (25-4, 10-1).

“Overall, it was pretty good,” sophomore Sam Shropshire said. “It was good to get the win over Indiana. Obviously against Illinois, it didn’t go how we wanted, but we’re going to learn from this experience definitely. Work on being a little better in the NCAAs.”

The tournament started great for NU. In their first contest, the Cats were able to pick up a 4-1 win over Indiana. The Cats’ won the doubles’ point to start off the scoring for the day. Sophomore Strong Kirchheimer was able to get the match-winning point for the Cats thanks to a victory in a hard fought, three-set match that ended 6-3, 5-7, 6-1.

“We played well against Indiana,” coach Arvid Swan said. “We played a really complete match.”

On Saturday, however, NU was not as successful. The Fighting Illini proved to be too much for the Cats, and beat them 4-0 en route to the Big Ten Championship.

Although the scores of the two games are almost opposites, there was no significant drop-off in the way NU played each match. The Cats did not play their ideal game against Illinois, but they performed at a level similar to what they did against Indiana. The difference between the two games had a lot to do with the level of competition.

“It was definitely two different caliber teams,” Kirchheimer said. “Indiana is a good team obviously, but Illinois is obviously a little bit tougher.”

As NU goes forward, it now puts its focus on the NCAA Tournament. The Cats look to compete hard against the nation’s best teams, and plan to show they are one of them.

One way for NU to demonstrate it is an elite team in the final competition of the year is to fix a problem noticed in the last match.

“Against Illinois, we started off a little slow in doubles, which hurt us,” Swan said.

The Cats are aware of what they can do to have immediate improvement. And with two weeks until the season’s final tournament, the team has time to make the needed adjustments.

More running to make sure the team is ready to play in warmer temperatures and a focus on doubles play will be consistent themes in the upcoming weeks of practice for the Cats.

For NU, a strong start to the match in the doubles competitions could be the difference in them making a deep run, or making a quick exit.

“When we’re playing good doubles, we can beat pretty much anybody,” Shropshire said. “When we have that sharp, we have a good chance of doing a lot of damage.”

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @KhadriceRollins