ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Northwestern men's tennis team hosted both the University of Minnesota Morris Cougars and the Bethany Lutheran College Vikings on Saturday. The matches were the first of the season for the Eagles on their home courts of the Johnson Tennis Complex. UNW swept the Cougars before competing in an absolute thriller against the Vikings, highlighted by super tiebreaker heroics for the Eagles.
Match One: Eagles 9, Cougars 0
The opening match of the day saw the Eagles soar to an efficient victory. In the opening doubles competition of match one, only two matches were played due to UMM forfeiting the #3 match. Up 1-0 out the gate, Jack Guerkink and
Adam Ryerse (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge) doubled the UNW lead with an 8-0 sweep of the Cougars in the #1 match.
Tyrus Studer (Rapid City, S.D./Stevens) and Darn Rupp followed with an 8-2 win at the #2 match to send Northwestern to singles play up 3-0.
In the singles competition, the Eagles once again received a gift as Morris forfeited the #6 match. Up 4-0 and needing just one point to claim victor in the team match,
Stewart Morrell (Elk River, Minn./Homeschool) got the job done for UNW. The sophomore clinched the conference match win with a 6-1, 6-0 victory at #1 singles.
Having won the team match, the Eagles kept up their success to complete a 9-0 sweep of UMM. Weddle swept his #2 match 6-0, 6-0.
Isaac Velgersdyk (Savage, Minn./Southwest Christian) followed with a 6-4, 6-1 win at #3 singles.
Darin Rupp (Sioux Falls, S.D./Roosevelt) won his #4 match 6-1, 6-2.
Joel Fremling (Aitkin, Minn./Aitkin) closed out the competition with a 6-1, 6-6 win at #6 singles.
Match Two: Eagles 5, Vikings 4
In only a week's time, the Bethany Lutheran Vikings and Northwestern Eagles found themselves staring down the barrel of each other's guns once again for a rematch that was being promoted as the sporting event of the week on UNW's campus. Last Saturday, the Eagles narrowly clipped the Vikings 5-4 in a match that featured 4 third set tiebreakers. It was impossible that this Saturday's match would provide the same level of excitement, entertainment and drama…right? Well the Eagles and Vikings had something to say about that as they delivered another show-stopping number to Eagle Nation on a beautiful, April day at the William Zane Johnson Tennis Complex.
In last week's matchup, the Eagles lost two of the three doubles points but were looking for revenge this Saturday as the Eagles' #1 and #3 doubles teams went stroke for stroke with the Vikings early in the match. However at the middle court, it was #2 doubles pairing of
Stewart Morrell (Elk River, Minn./Homeschool) and
Jacob Weddle (Rhinelander, Wis./Rhinelander) who decided to put on a doubles clinic and avenge their last week loss as they jumped to a quick 7-0 lead. With a hiccup in the eighth game, Morrell and Weddle unquestionably closed the door in the ninth game (8-1) and were the first to put a point up on the board. With both #1 and #3 doubles in tight matches, it was the duo of
Tyrus Studer (Rapid City, S.D./Stevens) and
Darin Rupp (Sioux Falls, S.D./Roosevelt) at #3 doubles who broke away late in the match at 4-5, winning their last 4 games to close at 8-5 and put the Eagles up by two team points. On the far side of the courts,
Adam Ryerse (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge) and
Jack Geurkink (Hudson, Wis./Hudson) (#1 doubles) had things close at 5-5 but were unable to hold serve, and faced a late break deficit that they were unable to overcome as the pair dropped the match 5-8. With singles play underway, it was the Eagles with the early 2-1 advantage.
First out of the gates was
Jacob Weddle (Rhinelander, Wis./Rhinelander) at #3 singles, followed by
Tyrus Studer (Rapid City, S.D./Stevens) at #6 singles and
Stewart Morrell (Elk River, Minn./Homeschool) at #1 singles. Weddle was able to control the match early and settle into his gameplan, stringing together a brilliant 6-2 first set. It was Studer who was the second to finish his tightly contested first set, 4-6. And not far behind was Morrell who started out red hot but cooled off midway through his first set at #1 singles, falling 3-6. With the Eagles looking to take their third team point of the match, Weddle ended up breaking serve late in the second set at 4-4 to make the match 5-4 with the serve on his racquet where Weddle secured the victory; 6-2, 6-4 and gave the Eagles a 3-1 lead. Shortly after, Studer ended up falling in his #6 singles match 4-6, 0-6 and Morrell was stymied in the second set, posting an identical second set score of 3-6, 3-6 at #1 singles to even up the team score at 3 a-piece.
In the next round of singles play, it was
Adam Ryerse (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge) (#2 singles),
Jack Geurkink (Hudson, Wis./Hudson) (#4 singles), and
Isaac Velgersdyk (Savage, Minn./Southwest Christian) (#5 singles) who had to look in the mirror and ask themselves who was going to step up with the Eagles needing two of the three singles matches to win the team match. Velgersdyk was caught looking up at a large, early deficit and ended up dropping the first set 1-6 while Ryerse scraped and clawed in the first set, but ultimately fell 3-6. However, Geurkink was able to find an early groove, breezing his way to a 6-0 first set win. If the Eagles wanted to win the team match, Ryerse or Velgersdyk would have to find a way to force a third set super tiebreaker.
Ryerse, who gave a Gaël Monfils-like effort, found himself hitting the deck three separate times throughout the match and ended up dropping his second set 3-6, 1-6 which gave the Vikings their first advantage of the evening 3-4. But Velgersdyk was able to build some momentum midway through his second set and go up 5-2 before surrendering the next 3 games to even things up at 5-5. And over at the far court, it was Geurkink who found himself down a break early in the second set. Eventually, Velgersdyk was able to regain control and close out his second set winning the last two games to force the third set super tiebreaker the Eagles were hoping for. At about the same time on the other side of the courts, Geurkink dropped his second set 3-6, giving the Eagles a third set super tiebreaker they were not hoping for.
With the Vikings holding to their 3-4 lead, the Eagles' had to light a candle and hope for the two super tiebreakers (that were being played simultaneously) to fall their way. Early it was both Geurkink and Velgersdyk who clung to a narrow lead and midway through, both found themselves with a 6-4 advantage (at the same exact time). With both Bethany Lutheran and Northwestern players, along with the great turnout of faithful fans braving the cold, trying to will their players to victory, Velgersdyk started to pull away at 8-6 and put an exclamation point on the match with dominate net play and a boisterous, "Let's go," signaling the victory at 1-6, 7-5, 10-6 in the super tiebreaker.
With the team score even at 4-4, the players and fans watching Velgersdyk's match quickly shuffled over to catch the ending of the match clinching point which once again found its way to Geurkink at #4 singles. Tied at 8-8, it was the Vikings who were able to pull ahead 8-9 as Geurkink was able to fend off match point #1 on his serve to even things at 9-9. Geurkink served once more to pull ahead at 10-9, only to have the Vikings respond with two points (on their serve) of their own. Down 10-11 and having to save his second match point, Geurkink once again won both of his points on his serve to pull ahead 12-11. At that point, Geurkink was able to outlast his opponent in a heart-stopping last point in which the Vikings sailed a ball just long giving Geurkink the win 6-0, 3-6, 13-11. With both the men's and women's Eagles team storming the court, it was again the Eagles that were able to somehow pull out the miraculous 5-4 victory against the strong Vikings team under the lights at the Johnson Tennis Complex.
Up Next
With that win, the Eagles move to 13-3 on the season and get the regular season sweep of the conference rival Vikings after two matches that could have gone either way. The Eagles will have a quick turnaround as both the men's and women's teams look to face off against the Martin Luther Knights on Monday, April 11th in New Ulm, MN.
