University of Washington
Nebraska
Seniors Step Up Late In Comeback Win Over Huskers
February 05, 2011 | Men's Tennis
Feb. 5, 2011
SEATTLE - Six matches in to the 2011 season, the 25th-ranked Husky men's tennis team faced its first true adversity of the year, finding itself a couple games from defeat, but seniors Martin Kildahl and Tobi Obenaus rallied for three set wins as UW fought off No. 37 Nebraska tonight at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. With the 4-3 win, the Huskies take a 6-0 record on the road next week, before returning in two weeks for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships as the intensity ratchets up seemingly every week.
Washington was on the ropes with the match tied 2-2 but the Huskers leading on courts one and five. The fifth court reached the pivotal point first, as Obenaus was down a set and a break and Nebraska's Andre Stenger went back to serve for the match, up 5-4. But Obenaus came through with the break of serve to extend things, and before long he broke again to win the set, 7-5, and force a third.
Shortly thereafter, Christopher Aumueller pulled out a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 1 singles over Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, the first dual loss for UW's No. 1, to give NU a 3-2 lead overall and show just how critical the service break was for Obenaus. As the match continued in the third set, the superior fitness of Obenaus appeared to help turn the tide, and the Austrian completed a 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory to even it up at 3-3.
Meanwhile, Kildahl was opening up a third set lead at No. 4 singles over Tom Blackwell. Kildahl had pulled out a lengthy first set, 7-5, but Blackwell came right back with a 6-1 second set win. In the third, Kildahl regrouped and got an early break for a 3-0 lead. All the remaining fans and players crowded around the No. 4 match after Obenaus' victory, and watched Kildahl serve out the win, taking the final set, 6-1.
"The goal was to keep working and try and turn it into a battle of fitness. The other guy was outplaying Tobi. I'd like to say he wasn't, but he was," said Head Coach Matt Anger of the turning point at No. 5. "But the longer we were out there, the better our chances to even things out, the better for Tobi's level of fitness to come through; he's one of the fittest guys around. This match obviously could have gone both ways but we were able to survive. There's no time clock, we can play all night if we have to, and Martin finished it off for us."
Washington's first point came from sophomore Kyle McMorrow, who has yet to drop a set in moving to 6-0 in singles play, today scoring a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Calin Paar, ranked 99th. Another critical point was posted by sophomore Marton Bots, who took his No. 6 singles match, 7-5, 6-1 over Sebastian Florczyk, who had previously been 5-0 for the Huskers in that spot.
In doubles play, the Huskers came through in the second and third spots to take the point, just the second doubles loss this season for UW. First to finish was the No. 1 match, where 30th-ranked McMorrow and Nedunchezhiyan were never broken in an 8-5 win over Florczyk and Stenger. But NU's Aumueller and Lindheim pulled away for an 8-4 win at No. 2 over Kildahl and Obenaus to even it. At No. 3, Bots and Brad Bator came back from 5-1 down to get within a game on several occasions, but they couldn't quite get even and Paar and Boney clinched the point with an 8-6 win.
Washington can't look ahead to National Team Indoors just yet, as the head out on the road next week and it figures to be a tough first stop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the 24th-ranked Wolverines await a match on Friday, Feb. 11.
Washington Men's Tennis
Nordstrom Tennis Center - Seattle, Wash.
February 5, 2011
No. 25 Washington 4; No. 37 Nebraska 3
Doubles
1) (30) McMorrow/Nedunchezhiyan (UW) def. Florczyk/Stenger (NU), 8-5
2) Aumueller/Lindheim (NU) def. (33) Kildahl/Obenaus (UW), 8-4
3) Paar/Boney (NU) def. Bots/Bator (UW), 8-6
Order of finish: 1, 2, 3
Singles
1) Christopher Aumueller (NU) def. (92) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (UW), 6-4, 6-4
2) (81) Kyle McMorrow (UW) def. (99) Calin Paar (NU), 6-3, 6-3
3) (97) Benedikt Lindheim (NU) def. Daniel Schmidt (UW), 6-1, 6-0
4) (83) Martin Kildahl (UW) def. Tom Blackwell (NU), 7-5, 1-6, 6-1
5) Tobi Obenaus (UW) def. Andre Stenger (NU), 1-6, 7-5, 6-4
6) Marton Bots (UW) def. Sebastian Florczyk (NU), 7-5, 6-1
Order of finish: 3, 2, 6, 1, 5, 4
Players Mentioned
