Northwestern men’s tennis takes down Indiana for perfect weekend

Just like that, once-slumping Northwestern men’s tennis has won four of its last five matches and is above .500 in the Big Ten.

The Wildcats (14-6, 2-1 Big Ten), two days after notching their first Big Ten win with a home victory over Purdue, went to Bloomington on Sunday and beat Indiana (10-7, 1-2 Big Ten) by a score of 4-2.

A 6-3 win from No. 1 doubles team (ranked No. 55 nationally) Dominik Stary/Strong Kirchheimer and 6-2 win for No. 3 team Michael Lorenzini/Chris Ephron gave Northwestern the early doubles point.

In singles, Michael Lorenzini and Stary both lost in straight sets — to Zac Brodney and Matthew McCoy respectively — to give Indiana a 2-1 advantage, but national No. 53 Zieba’s 6-1, 7-5 win at No. 2 singles tied everything up.

At No. 1 singles was a matchup of a pair of nationally ranked players, as No. 41 Kirchheimer beat No. 121 Antonio Cembellin 6-4, 6-3 to put the Wildcats on the cusp of a big road win in conference.

The deciding match turned out to be at No. 4, as Ben Vandixhorn rebounded from a second set loss to beat Bennett Crane 6-1 in the third and final set. With Jason Seidman down in the third set at No. 5 singles, Vandixhorn’s win was huge as Northwestern clinched a key road win.

For the second consecutive fixture, Sam Shropshire didn’t play as either part of a doubles pairing or in singles.

Northwestern continues its Big Ten schedule this weekend with a pair of road matches. On Friday, the Wildcats will head to Madison to take on Wisconsin and, on Sunday, they’ll play the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Minneapolis.