March 7, 2003
West Lafayette, Ind. - The Purdue men's tennis team kept its record in the Big Ten Conference perfect as it defeated No. 44 Northwestern in a 5-2 match-win at the Lafayette Sports Center. The Wildcat defeat improves the Boilermakers' overall record to 6-3 and 2-0 in the league.
Though Purdue dropped a 5-2 match to the Wildcats last season, coach Tim Madden was delighted to see the outcome of the teams' efforts against Northwestern this time around.
"They deserve to be proud of themselves because they earned it," Madden said. "They put a lot together in the last few weeks as a team. This was truly a total team effort."
Purdue started out the match winning two of the three doubles matches and came out ahead with the doubles point. The victories came at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, where junor Troy Havens and senior Scott Mayer defeated Northwestern's Tommy Hanus and Jackie Jenkins 8-6. At No. 2, freshman Paul Rose teamed up with senior Andrew Wakefield to defeat Northwestern's Chuck Perrin and Russell Bennett 8-3. Unfortunately, the Boilermakers couldn't muster a perfect sweep in doubles play as Josh Axler and Adam Schaechterle of Northwestern defeated junior Seth McKinley and sophomore David Robinson 8-2 at No. 3
Though Purdue won the doubles point, the Boilermakers kept the energy level up in singles action despite losing two singles matches. This rang true as three of the six singles matches went into three sets. Purdue's Wakefield sparked things for the Boilermakers as he won the teams first singles match against Jackie Jenkins at No. 2. Wakefield defeated the Wildcat in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 three-set tie-breaker. Havens followed Wakefield in the victory pool as he defeated Northwestern's Axler 7-6, 6-4 at No. 3.
Though this marked Havens' comeback victory over Axler from last season, the junior was highly motivated that he got a victory for his team.
"I had a lot of motivation since he beat me pretty bad last year at 6-3, 6-2, Havens said. "Going into the match, we had a lot of confidence because of the way we played last weekend in Seattle and we felt that we were the favorites today and it was going to be our match to win."
Not all spots for the Boilermakers turned out successful, however, as two losses came from Scott Mayer at No. 1 and David Robinson at No. 5. Northwestern's Tommy Hanus defeated Mayer 6-4, 6-4, while the Wildcats' Adam Schaechterle defeated Robinson 6-4, 7-5.
With the score at 3-2, it came down to the wire as Purdue's only two freshmen were left on the courts. At No. 4, it seemed as if Colin Foster was struggling to dominate the match as he lost the second set in his three-set match. After winning the first set 6-2, Foster lost the second set 1-6 before clinching the victory in his third set with a 7-5 score.
Foster applauded himself for staying motivated throughout his match.
"By the time I got down 5-2 in the third, I realized I hadn't been playing well the whole second and third sets up to that point," Foster said. "I just finally said, I got to take care of business on my court and keep fighting until I get a victory in."
At No. 4, Paul Rose ended the Boilermaker victory on a good note, as he also defeated Northwestern's Chuck Perrin in a three-set match and defeated the Wildcat 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.
The Boilermakers will have a week off from competition before heading to Texas to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Mar. 18 at 2 p.m. and UT-San Antonio on Mar. 20 at 1 p.m.
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Doubles
1. Havens/Mayer (P) def. Hanus/Jenkins (NW) 8-62. Rose/Wakefield (P) def. Perrin/Bennett (NW) 8-33. Axler/Schaechterle (NW) def. McKinley/Robinson (P) 8-2
Singles
1. Tommy Hanus (NW) def. Scott Mayer (P) 6-4, 6-42. Andrew Wakefield (P) def. Jackie Jenkins (NW) 6-2, 3-6, 6-13. Troy Havens (P) def. Josh Axler (NW) 7-6, 6-44. Paul Rose (P) def. Chuck Perrin (NW) 6-7, 6-3, 6-45. Adam Schaechterle (NW) def. David Robinson (P) 6-4, 7-56. Colin Foster (P) def. Ahmed Wahla (NW) 6-2, 1-6, 7-5