Men’s, women’s tennis open season with wins

Tennis season is back, and both the men’s and women’s teams are looking strong early.

Women shut out Akron, Chicago State

On January 14, the women opened their season at the Combe Tennis Center on campus in impressive style, beating Akron 7-0.

In the singles portion, the Wildcats earned a clean sweep. One seed Erin Larner (junior) beat Ariadna Blinova 7-5, 6-4. Two seed Rheeya Doshi (RS sophomore) battled back from a 1-6 first set to win the second set 6-3 and win the tiebreaker 10-5 against Sophia Geier. Three seed Alex Chatt (junior) beat Rita Pedroso 6-2, 6-4, Four seed Jillian Rooney (senior) dominated Luisa Echeverry 6-1, 6-0, five seed Brooke Rischbieth (senior) beat Carli Knezevich 6-3, 6-1, and six seed Nina Van Oost (freshman) earned a 6-3, 6-2 win over Karalina Maksimava.

In the doubles portion, Maddie Lipp and Alex Chatt posted a 6-1 win over Maksimava and Carli Knezevich. Larner and Lee Or beat Shannon Newnes and Rita Pedroso 6-1.

Later in the day, the Wildcats took down Chicago State, once again by a score of 7-0.

Here were the singles scores:

1. Rheeya Doshi (NU) def. Kostyuk, Mariya (CSUW) 6-0, 6-0

2. Lee Or (NU) def. Gamboa, Lorea (CSUW) 6-2, 6-4

3. Alex Chatt (NU) def. Gadacz, Leshia (CSUW) 6-0, 6-2

4. Brooke Rischbieth (NU) def. Lloyd, Carynne (CSUW) 6-0, 6-1

5. Nina Van Oost (NU) def. Aubets, Judit (CSUW) 6-1, 6-3

6. Jillian Rooney (NU) def. No player (CSUW), by forfeit

And the doubles:

1. Rheeya Doshi/Brooke Rischbieth (NU) def. Kostyuk, Mariya/Gadacz, Leshia (CSUW) 6-1

2. Nina Van Oost/Jillian Rooney (NU) def. Lloyd, Carynne/Gamboa, Lorea (CSUW) 6-3

Men squeak past Vanderbilt

For a third straight time, Northwestern beat Vanderbilt by the slimmest of margins, inching past the Commodores 4-3 in Nashville.

Konrad Zieba and Sam Shropshire beat Cameron Klinger and Billy Rowe in the top doubles matchup, and the Wildcats’ third doubles team of Michael Lorenzini / Chris Ephron helped NU take home the doubles point with a 6-3 win. By winning two of the three doubles matches, NU took home the doubles point and led 1-0.

The teams split the singles session at three matches apiece. Vanderbilt picked up wins at No. 2 (Cameron Klinger over Konrad Zieba 6-7, 6-3 6-3), No. 3 (Baker Newman over Sam Shropshire 6-7, 6-3, 7-5) and No. 5 (Billy Rowe over Jason Seidman 6-3, 1-6, 6-1). Northwestern picked up a wins with senior Strong Kirchheimer, Northwestern’s No. 1 player and No. 26 in the nation, who beat Daniel Valent (No. 97 in the nation) 6-4, 6-4. Freshman Dominik Stary won 6-1, 6-3 over Panu Virtanen in the No. 4 slot, and sophomore Ben Vandixhorn won in the No. 6 slot 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. It was Vandixhorn’s match, which finished last, that won the day for the Wildcats.

Ranked No. 13 in the nation, Northwestern will host No. 7 TCU on Friday, January 20.