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."
The Cats lost to South Alabama 5-2 in the first match of the spring before returning to Big Ten competition to beat Purdue by the same score.
Another four losses followed and a key defeat against Indiana put to rest any hopes of an NCAA bid.
After the loss against Indiana, Tempke said it was unlikely that the team would make the NCAA championships, but the team would still concentrate on winning their remaining matches.
The team did win its remaining regular season matches, beating both Iowa and Michigan State, 5-2.
"Those were teams that we should beat," Torricelli said. "It was just the way the schedule fell. If you see a certain number of losses or wins in a row, it could be a tribute to the strength of the team we were playing."
The Big Ten championships was the next step for the Cats and, after a rematch with the Spartans ended in an NU victory, the defending champions Ohio State shut out the Cats, 4-0.
"(Our) focus was on strength of schedule this season," Torricelli said after the match. "It was fitting given our tough schedule that we eventually lost to the best team in the conference."
Senior Willy Lock finished the season with a 16-15 singles record and was the only Cats player to finish with a winning record.
"Willy did a great job and stepped up this season," Torricelli said. "He really wanted to play No. 1 and did a terrific job. No match is easy at No. 1 and I was very, very disappointed he didn't make the Big Ten selection."
The Cats have three seniors graduating and will need to fill the departures in their lineup next season. Tempke and Lock have been the Cats' leading singles players for the last two years, while Matt Christian has been one of NU's top doubles players.
The doubles duo of sophomore Marc Dwyer and Sanborn impressed Torricelli enough this season to promote them to the No. 1 doubles slot.
"Next year's a rebuilding year and there's just no getting around it," Torricelli said. "We've got three, possibly four freshmen coming in. Alex and Marc had a good year, but they need to build on it and we'll have to wait and see."
Reach Pritish Behuria at p-behuria@northwestern.edu.
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