Tennis: Northwestern women sweep final regular season weekend in Indiana, men struggle on West Coast

One final slate.

The Northwestern women’s and men’s tennis squads closed out their regular seasons this past weekend, with both teams competing in two road matches. While the No. 50-ranked women (13-12, 6-7 B1G) defeated No. 60 Purdue 4-1 and Indiana 4-2, the No. 70-ranked men faltered on the West Coast, falling to No. 39 Washington 4-0 and No. 54 Oregon 4-1.

Women’s Recap

Northwestern swept through Indiana’s flagship universities on the road, first defeating Purdue on Saturday before officially clinching a Big Ten tournament berth by beating Indiana on Sunday.

Purdue took a 1-0 lead against Northwestern by virtue of doubles victories from its No. 2 and No. 3 squads, but the Wildcats quickly bounced back in singles, not allowing a single Boilermaker victory in that department — all without the No. 1 and No. 2 matches even finishing.

All of Northwestern’s singles wins came in straight sets, as No. 3 graduate student Britany Lau beat Ece Gencer 6-4, 6-3, No. 4 senior Sydney Pratt dominated Juana Larranaga 6-0, 6-3 with a perfect first set and No. 6 sophomore Autumn Rabjohns won 6-2, 6-3 against Ashlie Wilson. To clinch the match, senior No. 5 Kiley Rabjohns fought through a tight second set against Kathryn Wilson to win 6-3, 7-5. With the singles, the Wildcats beat the Boilermakers 4-1.

The story was different in Bloomington, where the Wildcats had momentum early by winning the doubles point. The No. 2 pairing of freshmen Erica Jessel and Mika Dagan Fruchtman eked out a 7-5 victory, while the No. 3 pairing of Autumn Rabjohns and Lau won their match with a comfortable 6-2 scoreline to secure a 1-0 lead for NU.

Lara Schneider, Indiana’s No. 1 player, got the best of Jessel in a straight-sets singles victory (6-4, 6-3), while No. 3 Nicole Teodosescu came back to defeat Lau in their match after dropping the first set (4-6, 6-2, 6-1). However, No. 4 Pratt (6-3, 7-5) and No. 6 Autumn Rabjohns (6-3, 7-6) both delivered for the ‘Cats by winning their matches in two. It was Northwestern’s No. 2 player, sophomore Neena Feldman, who clinched the win for her team. She came back from a set down to defeat Indiana’s Marina Fuduric by first winning a second-set tiebreak and then dominating the third set (4-6, 7-6, 6-1).

With a singles scoreline of 3-2, Northwestern was able to beat the Hoosiers 4-2 to sweep the weekend.

Men’s Recap

The men didn’t fare as well as the women, with the ‘Cats falling to Washington Friday and Oregon two days later.

Washington was no match for Northwestern from the start. Its No. 1 doubles team handily beat Northwestern senior Felix Nordby and junior Chad Miller 6-1, while its No. 3 squad also won 6-3. Despite NU sophomore Greyson Casey and freshman Vincent Yang being a game away from winning the No. 2 match, it didn’t matter as the Huskies clinched the doubles point.

Singles didn’t fare any better, as Washington’s No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5 players took wins against Northwestern without dropping a set. Although No. 2 Nordby and No. 4 senior Max Bengtsson both won sets and looked to be on their way to play a deciding set against their opponents, they could not get on the board fast enough as the Huskies walked out with a 4-0 win.

Northwestern started off stronger against Oregon, as Nordby and Miller bounced back from Friday’s loss with a 6-3 win over the No. 1 Ducks doubles squad. However, Casey and Yang, as well as Bengtsson and graduate student Saiprakash Goli, fell 4-6 and 3-6 respectively in the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches to give Oregon the doubles point.

No. 5 Miller scored Northwestern’s only point by winning the first singles match 6-4, 6-4 against Oregon’s Matthew Burton, but it was all downhill from there. No. 1 Lenn Luemkemann comfortably beat Goli 6-1, 6-2, while Casey also lost in straights. No. 2 Nordby showed valiant effort against Oregon’s Vlad Breazu in a tight three-setter, even winning the opener 6-1, but suffered a 0-6 second set and fell 5-7 in the decider to give the Ducks a 4-1 overall win.

What’s Next?

Both Northwestern teams will compete in the Big Ten tournament this upcoming week as the No. 10 seed, facing off against the No. 7 seed in the opening round. The women play Illinois on Wednesday at 5 p.m. CDT in Ojai, California, while the men face Michigan on Thursday at 1 p.m. in Columbus, Ohio.