EVANSTON, Ill. –The No. 32 Vanderbilt men’s tennis team suffered a hard fought 4-3 loss to the 20th ranked Northwestern Wildcats on the road Sunday afternoon. With the defeat, Vanderbilt now owns a 5-4 record on the year as the squad head into a busy weekend.
“Yeah it was a tough one to lose, like they all are,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage, “especially the 4-3s, but we made progress. We played some really good doubles today and they just outplayed us in some positions and you have to give them credit for that. We will get back to practice tomorrow and work on the things we think we need to get better at. I think that in spite of the fact that we lost, we played a pretty good match with a few isolated exceptions.”
Vandy took the doubles point over the Wildcats for an early lead. VU’s Baker Newman and Tate Allwardt led the charge, having defeated Konrad Zieba/Sam Shropshire 6-3 on court two. The Northwestern defeat was the tandem’s first of the season, now owning a 6-1 record. Neman/Allwardt improve to 1-1.
Rhys Johnson and Cameron Klinger earned their sixth victory together, pulling out a huge 7-6(4) victory at one over Fedor Baev and Strong Kirchheimer.
With the doubles point in the Commodores possession, the Wildcats strong singles lineup quickly gave the team a 3-1 advantage as wins rolled in on courts, four, two and one respectively.
While NU searched for their fourth and final win, Vanderbilt benefited tremendously by a late surge. Vandy generated wins on courts five and six, which leveled the match score to 3-all. The back-to-back victories came first from freshman Alex Ross on six, then senior Kris Yee at five.
Ross delivered NU’s Vandixhorn his second loss of the season with a tight 6-4, 6-4 victory to chip away at the lead. Yee made quick work of his first set, handedly defeating Alp Horoz, 6-2. The Las Vegas native earned his 74th win for the black and gold as he gave Vanderbilt their third point of the match; 6-2, 6-4.
At 3-3 attentions turned to Newman on court three, as the sophomore faced No. 77 Kirchheimer. The Wildcat took the first set 6-2, but Newman rallied back in the second to force a split. While the Miami native fought hard, Kirchheimer clinched the match for Northwestern; 6-2, 5-7, 6-3.
The Commodores will have their hands full this weekend, as the squad hosts two doubles headers on Friday and Sunday. On Friday, VU takes on Murray state and Belmont at 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm. Sunday’s action begins at noon against Columbia, with Sewanee following at 4:00 pm.
