No. 66 Northwestern needed one more win to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament.  

But as the Wildcats (15-13, 3-10 Big Ten) headed to Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, their season came to an end following a 4-0 loss to No. 15 Illinois on Friday. 

For the fourth consecutive match, NU was without injured sophomore Carter Pate, who last played on April 3. Junior Ethan Schiffman, who was forced to retire from his singles match against UCLA on April 12, also did not play.  

Despite not nabbing a point in the game, the ’Cats put up a fight in the doubles matches against the Fighting Illini (21-6, 10-3 Big Ten). At third doubles, freshman Cooper Han and junior Owen Megargee lost 1-6 to the No. 60-ranked pairing of David Bakonyi and Zach Viiala, but NU’s No. 1 duo bounced back with an upset win. Junior Greyson Casey and senior Chad Miller won 6-3 over No. 63-ranked Kenta Miyoshi and William Mroz.  

With the doubles point on the line, junior Cyrus Mahjoob and sophomore Vincent Yang faced off against Gabriel Debru and Sasha Colleu. The ’Cats kept the match competitive but eventually fell 3-6, giving Illinois the first point of the afternoon.  

Singles play didn’t go much better for NU, as the team failed to take a set across the six matches and forced just one tiebreaker.  

Han was the first to fall, losing 1-6, 0-6 to Adam Jilly. Megargee managed to win a few more games than Han, but eventually took a 2-6, 4-6 loss to Tyler Bowers. Miller played in the final completed match of the season for the ’Cats, falling 2-6, 2-6 to No. 103-ranked Mroz.  

The final spot in the Big Ten Tournament went to Nebraska, which holds the same conference record as NU. However, the ’Cats lost to the Cornhuskers earlier this season, which gave Nebraska the tiebreaker.  

After starting the season with a 12-3 record, NU won just three of its final 13 matches. The ’Cats’ 15 wins this dual season is more than each of the 2024 and 2025 dual seasons. 

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