In dramatic fashion, the Wildcats advanced to the second round of the NCAA men's tennis tournament Friday in Athens, Ga., topping Wake Forest 4-3 behind a three-set comeback rally from senior Chris Jackman in the final singles match. Jackman fell behind Wake Forest's Morgan Mays 5-4 in the deciding set, but broke match serves to stay alive before finishing off with a 7-5 victory.
Two of three doubles matches went to Wake Forest, with No. 1 pairing David Hopkins and Amogh Prabhakar beating NU's Alex Pasareanu and Spencer Wolf by a convincing 8-3 final and Danny Kreyman and Adam Lee edging past Mihir Kumar and Raleigh Smith 8-6. The third match went unfinished after the Demon Decons clinched the doubles series, headed to singles play up 1-0.
Needing to win four of six singles matchups to take the match, Northwestern began with quick wins from third-slated senior Sidarth Balaji and No. 5 singles sophomore Alex Pasareanu. Balaj took care of Wake's nationally-ranked senior Amogh Prabhakar in convincing 6-3, 6-4 finals to even the match score at 1-1, while Pasareanu won 6-4, 6-4 over Demon Decon Jon Ho.
After losing his first set 6-4 to David Hopkins, top singles senior Spencer Wolf came back to force a third set with a 6-1 win. He ultimately fell 6-4 in the rubber set, bringing the match score to an even 2-2.
Wolf's tough loss was avenged by All-Big Ten First Teamer Raleigh Smith, who also forced a second set after losing his first to Danny Kreyman. Unlike Wolf, however, Smith was able to capitalize on the momentum, winning the third set in a dramatic 7-6 (4) tiebreaker.
At No. 4, freshman Mihir Kumar lost two close sets to Wake's Adam Lee, putting the match all on the line with No. 6 singles. Jackman fell 6-3 in his first set before notching a tiebreaker win in the second. With Morgan Mays serving for match up 5-4 in the final set, Jackman fought back to take the game and even things at 5 apiece before taking the next two games for a 7-5 stunner.
The 'Cats will be back at it tomorrow, facing the winner of third-seeded Georgia and Binghampton at 2 p.m.