Fencing
Aside from a 22-5 blowout loss to Princeton, fencing was back in shape during the NU Duals in Evanston, where the 'Cats won 10 of 13 duals, including a victory over No. 10 Temple. Their average winning score was 20.4-6.6, a dominant showing.
The Wildcats avenged some close losses by beating Temple and Penn, who each beat Northwestern 14-13 last weekend.
Grade: NU continues to play top-10 opponents, and their record is only getting better. A-
Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving
Both of Northwestern’s swimming and diving teams closed out their dual season with a double dual against Purdue and Minnesota. Neither NU squad won a meet, with the women losing 206-134 to No. 16 Purdue and 259-88 to No. 19 Minnesota, and the men losing 250-103 to No. 23 Minnesota and 219-134 to Purdue.
The men’s 200-yard medley relay squad won their event, and Almog Olshtein placed first in the 50 free while Jordan Wilimovsky placed second in the 1000 free. The women placed second in the 400- and 200-yard freestyle relay.
Grade: Both teams got blown out by each opponent. D
Men’s and Women’s Tennis
The men’s and women’s tennis teams both lost 5-2 to highly ranked Duke teams this past weekend.
While the men won two of three doubles matches, their only singles victory came when sophomore Sam Shropshire took down Duke’s No. 36 Jason Tahir. The women lost both of their finished doubles matches, and only senior Lok Sze Leung and freshman Alex Chatt won their singles matches.
Grade: It’s actually pretty amazing that both teams lost to Duke by the same score. That said, losing is bad. D+
Men’s Basketball
While Northwestern held a one-point lead at halftime, Purdue started the second half on a 19-4 run. The Wildcats couldn’t catch up, and eventually lost 68-60. Both Tre Demps and Bryant McIntosh had 18 points in the loss, and the Wildcats shot 40 percent from three-point range.
The Wildcats had 23 of the total 35 personal fouls, leading to Purdue scoring 24 points from the charity stripe.
Grade: NU has lost seven games in a row, many after poor performances in the second half. D
Women’s Basketball
After a tough 102-99 loss to Iowa earlier in the week (where the two teams set the NCAA record for most threes in a game), Northwestern bounced back with a 70-49 trouncing of Minnesota. Christen Inman led the Wildcats with 20 points, while three other starters scored in double digits.
The Wildcats had 21 assists, forced 22 turnovers and held Minnesota to 29 percent shooting.
Grade: While it wasn't a great shooting night for either team, NU’s defensive shutdown of the Gophers was impressive. A