Michigan
Northwestern
Michigan Falls to Northwestern in Big Ten Quarterfinals
4/30/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Varsity Tennis Center)
Event: Big Ten Championship (Quarterfinals)
Score: Northwestern 4, Michigan 3
Records: U-M (16-4), NU (11-11)
Next U-M Match: TBA
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Seventh-seeded Northwestern University upset No. 2 seed University of Michigan in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Conference Men's Tennis Championship, taking the top four singles spots to knock the host team out of the tournament with a 4-3 defeat Friday (April 30) at the Varsity Tennis Center.
The Wildcats, 11-11 on the season and ranking 39th by the ITA, advance to Saturday's noon semifinals to play the winner of Friday afternoon's match between Purdue and Michigan State. No. 30-ranked Michigan, which is 16-4, will hope for a bid to the NCAA Tournament, which begins May 14.
Michigan won the opening point of the match by taking two of the three doubles matches. Using a revamped lineup, the Maize and Blue won the doubles point for the first time in five matches. Northwestern took the top doubles spot by an 8-3 count, but the Wolverines were able to earn hard-fought victories in the No. 2 and 3 matches.
At No. 2 doubles, Michigan's Henry Beam (Kalamazoo, Mich./Loy Norrix HS) and Ron Nano (Great Neck, N.Y./South HS) defeated NU's Joost Hol and Jamie Sahara by a score of 8-4. In the decisive No. 3 match, U-M's William Farah (Flint, Mich./Powers Catholic HS) and Danny McCain (Largo, Fla./The Canterbury School) came back from a 7-2 deficit to win in a tie-breaker, 9-8 (7-4), over Martin Bengtsson and Derrick Nguyen.
Northwestern stormed back in the singles matches by winning four of the six contests. Michigan's Beam and Ben Cox (Spring Lake, Mich./Spring Lake HS) were victorious in two sets in the No. 5 and 6 spots, respectively, giving Michigan the first two victories, but the rest of the matches would belong to the Wildcats, who avenged last week's (April 25) 6-1 loss to the Maize and Blue.
At No. 1, Northwestern's Doug Bohaboy, No. 48 in the ITA national singles rankings, rebounded from a first-set loss to defeat Matt Wright (Wichita, Kan./Wichita Collegiate HS) 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. The Wildcats also got a come-from-behind victory at No. 2 singles as Bengtsson slipped by Farah 2-6, 7-6, 6-4. Nguyen swept John Long (Ann Arbor, Mich./Huron HS) 6-3, 6-3 at No. 3, leaving the match even with only No. 4 singles in progress.
In the decisive match at No. 4 singles, Hol edged McCain 7-6, 6-4 to secure the victory for Northwestern.
Following are match-by-match results:
Singles
No. 1 -- No. 48 Doug Bohaboy (NU) d. Matt Wright 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
No. 2 -- Martin Bengtsson (NU) d. William Farah 2-6, 7-6, 6-4
No. 3 -- Derrick Nguyen (NU) d. John Long 6-3, 6-3
No. 4 -- Joost Hol (NU) d. Danny McCain 7-6, 6-4
No. 5 -- Henry Beam (UM) d. Brad Erickson 6-3, 7-6
No. 6 -- Ben Cox (UM) d. Jamie Sahara 6-1, 6-2
Doubles
No. 1 -- Bohaboy/Erickson (NU) d. Wright/Long 8-3
No. 2 -- Beam/Nano (UM) d. Hol/Sahara 8-4
No. 3 -- Farah/McCain (UM) d. Bengtsson/Nguyen 9-8 (4)
Players Mentioned
