April 29, 2010
BLOOMINGTON, IND. - In a rematch of the regular-season finale, the Penn State men's tennis team (15-11, 3-7) dropped a tough 4-3 decision to Northwestern in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, being played on the campus of Indiana University.
Northwestern came out and won two of the three doubles bouts to gain a 1-0 advantage early in the match. The Nittany Lions tied the match at 1-1 with a first singles win, but Northwestern pushed ahead with back-to-back singles victories to take a 3-1 lead. However, Penn State came back to tie the match at 3-3 before coming up short in the sixth singles bout.
On doubles court No. 3, sophomores Taylor Cohen (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Jason Lee (Melbourne, Australia) had a difficult 8-2 setback to Sidarth Balaji and Andrew McCarthy. Penn State evened up the doubles decision at one though when senior Ryan Gormley (Las Vegas, Nev.) and freshman Warren Hardie (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) came back from a 5-4 deficit and defeated Alex Sanborn and Tobias Reitz, 8-6.
The doubles point was then decided in the No. 1 bout where junior Eddie Bourchier (Hobart, Australia) and senior Guillaume St-Maurice (Saint-Eustache, Quebec) faced Joshua Graves and Spencer Wolf. Bourchier and Gormley had an early advantage as they led, 3-2. Nevertheless, the Wildcats bounced back and took a commanding 7-4 lead. Penn State's duo cut the lead to 7-6, but Graves and Wolf were able to halt the Lions' comeback attempt, en route to an 8-6 victory.
With Northwestern leading 1-0, the match moved to singles action. Bourchier dropped the first point to Graves in first singles play, but then picked up six of the next seven points to earn the first set win. He continued to cruise to a 6-0 win in the second set over the 97th-ranked Graves to even the match score at 1-1. The Wildcats took a 2-1 lead after McCarthy topped Bryan Welnetz (Laredo, Texas) in straight sets (6-2, 6-2) in fourth singles.
Hardie went down a break early in the first set of his third singles match with Wolf and was never able to recover on the way to a 6-2 loss in the opening frame. Trailing 4-3 in the second set, Hardie came back strong by winning the next two points to take a 5-4 lead, but Wolf broke back and forced a tiebreaker where he claimed a 7-4 win to secure the match and a 3-1 lead for Northwestern.
Balaji held serve in the first set against Gormley in second solo play, but the Nittany Lion senior responded and did not lose another point in the opening frame on the way to a 6-1 victory. Balaji fought back to take a 5-2 lead in the second set. However, Gormley won the next two points to make it 5-4 before Balaji closed out the second set win (6-4) on the next point to force a third and deciding set. The pair remained on serve for the third set and eventually ended up in a tiebreaker where Gormley earned the 7-6 (4) win to make it a 3-2 Northwestern lead.
St-Maurice sprinted out to a 4-1 advantage over Sanborn in the first set, of fifth singles play but needed a tiebreaker to take the upper hand in the match, 7-6 (8). St-Maurice rode the momentum of his tiebreaker win to a 4-0 lead in the second frame, but Sanborn battled back to even the score at 6-6. In the tiebreaker, St-Maurice claimed the 7-6 (5) win to earn the point for the Nittany Lions and square the match at 3-3 with only the sixth singles match remaining.
Cohen and Chris Jackman were locked in a tough match at sixth singles, exchanging service points until Jackman claimed the opening set in the tiebreaker, 7-6 (4). The second set was more of the same as the pair battled again to a tiebreaker where Cohen earned the 7-6 (4) victory to tie the match and force a deciding set. The final frame was on serve for the first six points, but Jackman proved to be too much for Cohen as he won the final three points and clinched the match for the Wildcats.
Final Score: #63 Northwestern 4, #59 Penn State 3
Doubles
1. #84 Joshua Graves/Spencer Wolf (NW) def. #54 Eddie Bourchier/Guillaume St-Maurice (PSU), 8-6
2. Warren Hardie/Ryan Gormley (PSU) def. Alex Sanborn/Tobias Reitz (NW), 8-6
3. Sidarth Balaji/Andrew McCarthy (NW) def. Jason Lee/Taylor Cohen (PSU), 8-2
Order of finish: 3, 2, 1
Singles
1. #93 Eddie Bourchier (PSU) def. #97 Joshua Graves (NW), 6-2, 6-0
2. Ryan Gormley (PSU) def. Sidarth Balaji (NW), 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (4)
3. Spencer Wolf (NW) def. Warren Hardie (PSU), 6-2. 7-6 (4)
4. Andrew McCarthy (NW) def. Bryan Welnetz (PSU), 6-2, 6-2
5. Guillaume St-Maurice (PSU) def. Alex Sanborn (NW), 7-6 (8), 7-6 (5)
6. Chris Jackman (NW) def. Taylor Cohen (PSU), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 6-3
Order of finish: 1, 4, 3, 2, 5, 6