No. 54 Northwestern was on the ropes. 

Trailing 3-2 against Denver on Sunday, the newly-ranked Wildcats (10-3, 0-0 Big Ten) faced the threat of a winless weekend, having already lost to No. 24 Notre Dame 4-0 on Friday.

Junior Greyson Casey and freshman Cooper Han both needed to win their matches for NU to nab the victory. After a back-and-forth second set, Casey won his No. 3 singles match in a seven-point tiebreak, leaving the ’Cats’ fate in the hands of Han at the sixth singles spot. 

The newcomer won the first set 6-0 but squandered numerous match points and lost the second set, forcing the match to a deciding third set against the Pioneers’ (5-3, 0-0 Summit League) Aaron Beduhn. After taking a 5-4 lead and reaching match point, Beduhn’s shot hit the net and Han sprawled on the court in celebration, immediately swarmed by his teammates. 

“At 5-4, it was really important that I really locked in and fought super hard,” Han said while still catching his breath after the match. “I was really proud that I stayed in through that last rally and ended up pulling it out. 

Before defeating Denver 4-3, NU opened the weekend in South Bend, Indiana, where it took on the Fighting Irish (9-2, 0-0 ACC). Along with the team, two of the ’Cats’ doubles pairings earned a spot in ITA’s rankings. 

Sophomore Carter Pate and Casey, ranked No. 73, nabbed NU’s lone doubles win. The ’Cats’ top doubles pairing won 6-3 over Notre Dame’s Peter Nad and Luis Llorens Saracho.

NU’s second doubles team, ranked No. 70, of junior Cyrus Mahjoob and junior Ethan Schiffman, fell 4-6. Sophomore Vincent Yang and senior Chad Miller lost 3-6, giving the doubles point to the Fighting Irish.

The ’Cats found little success in singles despite three matches with first-set tiebreakers. Pate fell 6-7(4), 4-6 against No. 14 Sebastian Dominko, Miller lost to Llorens Saracho 6-7(2), 1-6 and Casey’s match went unfinished. NU only managed to win one set in singles, courtesy of Schiffman at fourth singles, who fell 6-1, 2-6, 1-6 to Giuseppe Cerasuolo.

“(Notre Dame) has a very good team, but we felt like we could go in there and win,” coach Arvid Swan said postgame Sunday. “The tiebreaks didn’t go our way, and that was disappointing.”

The ’Cats bounced back with a 4-3 win at the Combe Tennis Center over Denver, a team they hadn’t faced in 13 years. Similar to Friday’s game, NU took one doubles match but failed to nab the doubles point.

Pate and Casey won 6-3 before Miller and Yang fell 3-6. With the doubles point on the line, the ’Cats’ second team of Mahjoob and Schiffman headed to a seven-point tiebreak. The duo fell into a 6-1 hole, and despite nabbing three straight points, they couldn’t salvage the comeback.

Entering singles play, NU needed to win four matches to defeat the Pioneers. The task became tougher when Miller fell 1-6, 3-6, marking the first complete singles match. 

Schiffman earned the ’Cats their first point of the afternoon, nabbing a 6-4, 6-3 win over Ryoma Mishiro. The victory was highlighted by Schiffman breaking Mishiro’s serve four times in the second set.

Pate won NU’s second singles match 6-4, 7-5. He trailed 2-4 in the first set before winning seven games in a row across both sets. Pate seemed to bring the energy from the center court, shouting, “That’s a set!” after winning his first set.

Mahjoob’s match ended next with a 4-6, 6-7(0) loss, setting up Casey and Han’s late-match heroics. Casey won his match over Theo Coats by a score of 6-3, 7-6(6), with neither player leading by more than one game in the second set. Han’s three-set thriller ended in a 6-0, 6-7(5), 6-4 win. After he trailed 0-2 to open the third set, Han broke Beduhn’s serve four times en route to winning the match.

“Cooper’s been outstanding for us,” Swan said. “It was a great job by him as a freshman to win.”

The ’Cats look to start a new win streak when they face UIC on Saturday. 

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