Northwestern kicked off its season with a home match against Vanderbilt but came up short, claiming just one win against the Commodores.

Like last season, doubles was a struggle for the Wildcats (0-1, 0-0 Big Ten). The No. 1 doubles pairing of sophomore Carter Pate and senior Chad Miller quickly lost their match 6-1. Shortly after, the No. 3 duo of sophomore Vincent Yang and transfer sophomore Dylan Charlap fell 6-2.

NU saw more success in singles. Despite only winning one match, three other matches went to three sets.

“That wasn’t our best doubles,” coach Arvid Swan said. “But singles-wise, I thought we made it quite competitive.”

Miller’s No. 4 singles match was the first to finish, losing 6-1, 6-2. At the No. 6 position, Yang came close to coming back in the second set, despite being down 6-1, 5-2. After tying it up to send the second set to a tiebreak, he was unable to make the comeback and lost 6-1, 7-6(5).

Vanderbilt’s win in singles match No. 5 clinched the match for the Commodores (3-0, 0-0 SEC). Junior transfer Ethan Schiffman started strong, winning his first set 7-5, but lost his footing and fell 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

Junior transfer Cyrus Mahjoob played a close match at the No. 2 position, winning his first set 6-4 and losing his second set 6-4. The final set went to a tiebreak, which resulted in a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) loss for Mahjoob.

Junior Greyson Casey also went to a third set at the No. 3 spot after winning his second set, but fell 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

Pate was the standout of Saturday’s match, pulling out a 7-6(6), 6-3, 7-6(2) win at the No. 1 position against Pablo Martinez Gomez, the ITA’s No. 62-ranked singles player. 

“I feel like it was important to kind of bring the energy at number one,” Pate said. “Just being a leader for the team as best I could, just competing as well as I could, is all I can really do up there.”

In the first set tiebreak, Pate went down 6-3 but maintained his composure to come back and win the tiebreak 8-6. Down 5-3 in the second set, the umpire overruled a serve he called out, causing him to lose the set. He did not let his frustration affect him and won the deciding set in another tiebreak.

Pate mainly played at the No. 4 spot last year, appearing in just eight matches and struggling with injuries throughout the season.

“He can beat anybody in college tennis,” Swan said of Pate. “His level has just jumped a lot, which is a huge credit to him.”

NU will play a doubleheader at home next Saturday against IU-Indy and Cleveland State.

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