Men's Tennis Edges Northwestern 4-3

Sunday, January 14

Evanston, Ill.

12:00 PM

University of Louisville

Northwestern

January 14, 2007 | Men's Tennis

Jan. 14, 2007

EVANSTON, Ill. - - The 29th-ranked University of Louisville men's tennis team opened the 2007 season with a 4-3 win over host 56th-ranked Northwestern. Freshman Kenneth Nordheim's 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 win over Marc Dwyer at No. 4 clinched the match for the Cardinals.

In doubles, U of L's 24th-ranked team of seniors Damar Johnson and Slavko Radman defeated No. 27 Willy Lock and Matt Christian 8-3 at the top seed. Northwestern responded to take the doubles point as Dwyer and Alex Sanborn beat Robert Rotaru and Chris Herrlinger 8-4 at the two-spot; and Christian Tempke and Juan Gomez topped David Simon and Nordheim 8-2 at No. 3.

In singles action, Radman, No. 71 in the ITA singles rankings, beat Lock 6-3, 6-4 to tie the match at 1-1. Rotaru gave the Cards a 2-1 lead with his 6-4, 6-3 win over Juan Gomez. Christian tied the match a 2-2 when he defeated U of L freshman David Simon 6-4, 6-4 at the three-seed. The Wildcats took a 3-2 lead when Sanborn edged freshman Horatiu Oltean 6-4, 7-5 at No. 6. The Cards tied the score at 3-3 when Johnson topped Tempke 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 at No. 2. The match came down to Nordheim, who fell to Dwyer 6-4 in the first set. He came back to win the second set 6-4 and outlasted Dwyer 7-6 in the third.

"This was an extremely good way to start off season," said U of L assistant coach Mark Beckham. "The four hour match, came down to a freshman who has been on campus for about two weeks. Kenneth Nordheim showed an incredible amount of mental toughness in the third set to win match for us. Hopefully this will be used as springboard for rest of the season, to know that we can play matches like this and win with a very young team.

U of L (1-0) will play a doubleheader to open the home season on January 20 at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center. The Cards will play host to Birmingham Southern at 11 a.m. and Western Michigan at 5 p.m.

No. 29 Louisville 4 - No .56 Northwestern 3Singles1 - Slavko Radman (UL) d. Willy Lock (NW) 6-3, 6-42 - Damar Johnson (UL) d. Christian Tempke 6-4, 5-7, 6-33 - Matt Christian (NW) d. David Simon 6-4, 6-44 - Robert Rotaru (UL) d. Juan Gomez 6-4, 6-35 - Kenneth Nordheim (UL) d. Marc Dwyer 4-6, 6-4, 7-66 - Alex Sanborn (NW) d. Horatiu Oltean 6-4, 7-5 Doubles1 - #24 Radman/Johnson (UL) d. #27 Christian/Lock 8-32 - Dwyer/Sanborn (UL) d. Rotaru/Chris Herrlinger 8-43 - Tempke/Gomez (NW) d. Simon/Nordheim 8-2