This weekend Evanston hosted the Big Ten Men’s Tennis Tournament for the first time since 2003.
The big story from the event was the thrilling upset of Ohio State in Sunday’s final at the hands of Illinois. The Buckeyes were 29-2 this season, had won the last six Big Ten Tournaments and had not lost a match in conference since 2005.
Northwestern lost to Illinois during Friday’s quarterfinals. The following is a breakdown of their matches.
Penn State
The sixth-seeded Wildcats advanced over eleventh-seeded Penn State on Thursday. But in what is perhaps a sign of things to come, the result was not easily anticipated.
Northwestern picked up an early win in doubles with Tobias Reitz and Sidarth Balaji's 8-3 victory. The Wildcats’ top two players, Josh Graves and Spencer Wolf, then lost 8-6 to the Nittany Lions’ top duo of Jason Lee and Russell Bader, who rank No. 23 in the nation as a doubles pairing.
Luckily for the Wildcats, Raleigh Smith and Alex Pasareanu were able to close the door in their 8-6 match that put Northwestern up 1-0 for the day.
The Wildcats then dug themselves a hole in singles play, losing two of the first three contests to conclude with an even score of 2-2.
Three matches remained in play, all of which went to a third and final set, putting what was predicted to be a comfortable victory into serious doubt. But Smith and Graves made sure to settle the score as Smith defeated Russell and Graves took down Jason Lee to pick up a 4-2 win for Northwestern and avenge the team’s only doubles loss of the day.
Illinois
The Wildcats were not able to emerge victorious in their quarterfinal matchup on Friday.
Spencer Wolf and Josh Graves were engaged in an epic set with Dennis Nevolo and Roy Kalmanovich, who rank No. 28 in the country, with both sides struggling to find the advantage. However, it was all for naught when Northwestern lost its other two matches. Illinois lead the contest 4-3.
Reitz and Balaji were the first to fall in an 8-4 loss, and the Raleigh Smith-Alex Pasareanu duo that saved the doubles point the day before lost 8-5 to Tim Kopinski and Ross Guignon.
Singles competition only brought on the inevitable. Josh Graves was outmatched against No. 8 Dennis Nevolo, 6-2, 6-2. Sidarth Balaji battled well early on but was eventually disposed of by Tim Kopinski, 6-1, 6-3, putting Illinois one match away from victory.
Bruce Abdelnour put the final nail in Northwestern’s collective coffin. He broke the energetic Raleigh Smith’s serve twice on the final three games to close 6-3, 6-3.
Junior Chris Jackman had a strong showing in his matches, which did not finish. He won his first set against Farris Gosea 6-2 and was up 6-5 before Illinois clinched their 4-0 victory.
“It would have been a fun feeling winning it [in Evanston], having our home crowd,” Jackman said. “Going out this early is definitely disappointing.”
Where Northwestern stands:
The Wildcats’ NCAA Tournament status is now out of their hands as they sit on the bubble (sound familiar?). It certainly will not hurt their cause that their conference tournament loss came to the eventual champions in the Fighting Illini. Last season, the Big Ten qualified its top five teams for NCAAs. Northwestern finished sixth this season but did finish 7-4 in conference play and those losses came to four of the five top Big Ten squads.