Men’s Tennis

After beating Nebraska on Friday, Northwestern completed its weekend sweep with a shutout over Iowa on Sunday, extending its winning streak to 7 and further cementing itself as a Big Ten powerhouse.

The pair of road wins lifts the Wildcats to 7-0 in the conference as the team continues to turn heads and build on its historic start.

“Winning in the Big Ten is tough,” coach Arvid Swan said. “It’s hard to win on the road, it’s hard to win in different conditions. … It’s really a testament to the mental toughness of our team.”

Before sweeping Iowa, the Cats (21-2, 7-0 Big Ten) found themselves in an unfamiliar territory against Nebraska. After posting four consecutive shutouts, Swan’s squad soon found itself down a point entering the singles slate after conceding the doubles point for the first time in conference play.

It ultimately made little difference, as the Cats steamrolled through the remainder of the contest with juniors Konrad Zieba, Sam Shropshire and Strong Kirchheimer and freshman Ben Vandixhorn winning their singles matches to guarantee an NU victory. Still, losing at doubles gave the team something to work on heading into Sunday’s matchup.

“We talked about this before the match, that the doubles play against Nebraska was a little bit sloppy, so we did not want to repeat that,” senior Fedor Baev said. “We just wanted to come out as hot as possible and I think we achieved that pretty well.”

Baev, who partners with Kirchheimer, did his part the next time around. After dropping their match against Nebraska, the duo earned NU its first victory against Iowa.

Junior Alp Horoz and senior Mihir Kumar ensured that NU would begin the contest a leg up after responding from their loss in the prior contest with a victory as well.

“Winning that doubles point is huge,” Swan said. “It gives you momentum … and we feel really good about our singles play, and if you’re up 1-0, obviously you have an advantage going into singles.”

Both Kirchheimer and Baev carried that momentum into their singles matches. Playing at No. 3 and No. 4 singles respectively, the two quickly dispatched their opponents. Baev closed out Jonas Larsen in consecutive 6-2 sets, while Kirchheimer — currently ranked No. 68 in the nation — followed up a dominant 6-2, 6-3 finish in Lincoln with a 6-0, 6-0 sweep of Iowa’s Robin Haden.

“I was actually pretty fired up for that match because I lost my match to Iowa last year, so I had that in my head a little bit,” Kirchheimer said. “I went out there and just tried to my job the best I could.”

After his swift victory, Kirchheimer said he immediately went to cheer on his teammates, who all won their opening sets — though some more decisively than others.

Zieba, ranked No. 15, struggled after a strong opening set, losing the second without winning a single game. Shropshire, Vandixhorn and Horoz all maintained a slight lead, before Vandixhorn clinched the team’s win for the fourth time in as many games.

“He’s comfortable at this point,” Swan said of the freshman, who won 6-4, 6-3. “He’s played in a lot of dual matches so far, so he understands the environment. He doesn’t really focus on what the team’s score is, he’s just trying to win his own match.“

With the victory, the Cats return home to face Michigan and Michigan State, which Kirchheimer said is exciting after a two-game road trip.

And though the 13th-ranked team will remain favorites after such a strong start, it isn’t going to rest on its laurels.

“We’re hungry for more,” Baev said. “One of our goals this season is to be undefeated at home and we’re going to do everything to achieve that goal. … Both Michigan and Michigan State are really good teams so we know we’re going to have to bring it.”

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Twitter: @GarrettJochnau