By Pritish Behuria
The Daily Northwestern
With six Big Ten teams getting NCAA bids this season, Northwestern (10-14, 4-6 Big Ten) was left thinking of what might have been, falling just one win shy.
"It shows you how strong the conference is getting," NU coach Paul Torricelli said. "We're very disappointed we didn't get into the tournament and if we had beaten Penn State, we would be in."
The Wildcats' schedule saw them face seven of the top 21 teams in the country during the season and it showed. They had their most regular season losses since 1991, but still finished in seventh place in the Big Ten.
"The strength of schedule was a great challenge for us, and I liked how we competed, but we couldn't capitalize on it," Torricelli said.
It was an up-and-down season for the Cats, with the team never able to win more than three games in a row. The Cats split their first six duals in January.
Freshman Alex Sanborn had an encouraging start to his NU career, winning his first three singles matches in dual competition.
"He did a really good job," Torricelli said. "Alex jumped in and adapted very quickly to dual matches, which usually takes a long time for incoming freshmen. He hit the ground running."
Two big wins against then-No. 30 Arkansas and Harvard followed for the Cats before they went on a five-match losing streak.
The streak included a 4-3 loss to Penn State, which turned out to be a decisive loss for the Cats this season.
"If I could get one match back, it would be Penn State," Torricelli said.
In its last match before Spring Break, NU lifted its game once more to break its losing streak and record its first Big Ten victory of the season, edging Wisconsin 4-3.
The win was important for the Cats, who went into Spring Break 6-8 for the season and 1-2 in the Big Ten.
Ahead of the spring season, senior Christian Tempke said, "Numbers are not good indicators of our performance so far. We play some top teams later and we can only improve if we play against better teams."
Spring Break
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