By Pritish Behuria
The Daily Northwestern
After a disappointing 8-13 season in which Northwestern has won just three Big Ten contests, the No. 61 Wildcats return to the Vandy Christie Tennis Center on Sunday for their regular season finale against No. 74 Michigan State.
Seniors Matt Christian, Willy Lock and Christian Tempke will step onto the court for the final home matches of their careers.
Over the last four years, the three players have combined for a dual match record of 132-118 in singles and 107-106 in doubles.
"They've all been factors in both singles and doubles throughout their careers and it's important they leave with a win," coach Paul Torricelli said.
It should be a particularly special day for Tempke, who will receive the first ever Arlie Weiss Memorial Sportsmanship Award before the match.
"Christian has been a real gentleman throughout his career," Torricelli said. "He's always played near the top of the lineup and conducted himself really well. He's very worthy of being the first recipient of this award."
The seniors will be looking to put a nice ending on a regular season filled with inconsistency.
Tempke won five straight singles matches at one point but then lost eight of his next nine before beating Iowa's Bart van Monsjou last Sunday.
The doubles pairing of Lock and Christian also snapped a losing skid against Iowa, winning for the first time in six matches. The duo has not had a winning streak of more than two games this season.
With the seniors and the rest of the squad performing inconsistently, the Cats have suffered 13 defeats in dual action this season, their most since 1991.
"The key for us was we were inconsistent throughout the lineup," Torricelli said. "Getting everybody to play well on a particular day has eluded us."
The Cats have also played six teams in the top 10 this season.
"It's the toughest schedule in our history," Torricelli said. "Guys had really tough challenges, and much of the win-loss record is due to that and the parity in the Big Ten this year."
Spring Break
The DAILY encourages you to share your thoughts on this story. Please help us keep the discussion lively, but civil. Comments that are abusive to others, off-topic or vulgar, or comments that misrepresent someone's identity, will not be tolerated. We reserve the right to delete any comments in violation or to close comment threads on articles.
Please e-mail online@dailynorthwestern.com to flag a comment or for more information.
Be the first to comment on this story