Lions Spoil Wildcats Return To Evanston With Comeback Victory
Squandering several advantages Saturday, No. 19 Northwestern fell to No. 16 Columbia four points to three in the first men’s match at Combe Tennis Center in over a month.
The Lions’ Henry Ruger defeated the Wildcats’ Brian Berdusco in a final set “winner take all” tiebreak, scoring Columbia’s fourth win in their last five matches.
At 2-2 in the final set tiebreak, Berdusco failed to land a first serve and Ruger took full advantage, pouncing on slow second serves and wrong-footing Berdusco in one rally.
Ruger won five consecutive points to win the tiebreak 7-2 and clinch the match for Columbia.
Fans watch singles matches between Northwestern and Columbia at Combe Tennis Center on Saturday, March 12, 2022.
Ross Shinberg / Wildcats Daily
This loss marked the second consecutive loss for Northwestern after dropping a COVID-rescheduled match against Vanderbilt University in Nashville on Wednesday, 6-1.
While this match ended in a tense tiebreak, Northwestern had plenty of chances to wrap up the match before it got there.
Simen Bratholm led the charge early by being the only straight-set victor on the day. He defeated No. 122 Hugo Hashimoto 6-3, 7-6(2). Additionally, he helped Northwestern win the doubles point by serving up a 6-0 bagel with partner Berdusco against Ruger and Jayden Templeman.
Along with Bratholm, four other Wildcats won their first set, putting the home team in prime position for a sweep.
But the Lions battled back, and all five remaining matches went into the third set.
The Lions cut the deficit to 2-1 when No. 9 Alex Kotzen completed his comeback and defeated No. 67 Steven Forman 6-1 in the third set.
Northwestern took a commanding three points to one lead when Felix Nordby broke Roko Horvat at 6-5 to secure the Wildcats’ third point.
Columbia, once again, clawed back another point as Max Westphal took out No. 100 Trice Pickens 6-4 in their deciding set, reducing Northwestern’s margin to 3-2.
At this juncture, the remaining two Wildcats, Berdusco and Presley Thieneman, lost their way on serve.
Berdusco failed to serve out his match at 5-4, which would have given the Wildcats a 4-2 win.
Across the gym, Presley Thieneman was down 6-5 and serving to force a final set tiebreak. But Austen Huang broke Thieneman, much like Nordby did a few minutes earlier against Horvat, to level the match at three points all.
As Thieneman lost, fans across Combe Tennis Center walked over to Court 1 to see Berdusco save three match points and force the final set tiebreaker.
But in the tiebreaker, Berdusco could not buy a first serve. In his first service point, he shanked a second serve out of the court to immediately give Ruger the mini-break advantage. Berdusco battled and evened the tiebreak at two, but it was one-way traffic from that point.
Berdusco failed to land a first serve in the rest of the tiebreak and Ruger picked apart his second serve to cruise to victory.
Two hours later, the Wildcats picked up a confidence-boosting win to get off their short schneid by crushing the University of Illinois-Chicago 4-0.
Despite giving Forman and Bratholm the night off, the Wildcats raced out to easy victories in doubles and singles, not needing to finish the remaining three matches.
In the completed singles matches, Thieneman, Pickens and Gleb Blekher combined to lose only six games over six sets as the Wildcats dominated from start to finish.
The Wildcats have played UIC twice this season and have not lost a single set against the Flames.
After the 1-2 week, Northwestern’s record drops to 11-4 and the team will likely drop out of the top 25 in the ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings.
Northwestern will travel to North Carolina to take on North Carolina State on Monday, March 21 before Big Ten play starts the following Friday against Penn State.
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