April 5, 2007

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Following a split in their season's first Big Ten road weekend, the 57th-ranked Wildcats are set to host second-ranked Ohio State and 71st-ranked Indiana this weekend. The 'Cats face the Buckeyes at 4 p.m. Friday before taking on the Hoosiers at Noon Sunday.

Temperatures for the weekend are expected to be in the 30s. Therefore, this weekend's matches will most likely be played indoors at the Combe Tennis Center.

The Buckeyes enter the contest winners of eight straight. Their last loss came in the finals of the ITA Indoor Championships to top-ranked Georgia. Steven Moneke leads the way as the nation's seventh-ranked singles player. In doubles, Devin Mullings and Chris Klingemann are ranked 22nd in doubles. For the Wildcats, senior Christian Tempke (Wentorf, Germany/Gymnasium LobrÜgge) is No. 107 in singles.

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Live results will be provided for every home match held indoors at the Combe Tennis Center. Live Stats can be found under the match name on the front page of NUsports.com or at this link: Tennis Live Stats.

Last Time Out
Northwestern went 1-1 in its season's first Big Ten road weekend, taking a 5-2 win over Purdue Friday before falling to eighth-ranked Illinois Saturday, 6-1.

Northwestern surrendered the doubles point to Purdue, but won five singles matches to top the Boilermakers Friday afternoon, 5-2. Trailing 1-0 after Purdue took the doubles point, Tempke evened the dual with a straight-set win over Paul Rose at No. 2, 6-4, 6-3.

After senior Willy Lock (Lima, Peru/Markham College) and sophomore Marc Dwyer (Peachtree City, Ga./Univ. of Nebraska-Independent Study H.S.) took matches at No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, senior Matt Christian (Troy, Mich./Brother Rice) won the clincher with a straight-set win at No. 4 singles.

Northwestern Notes:
• Seniors Lock and Tempke both have winning records against Big Ten opponents. Lock's wins came in duals against Purdue, No. 35 Wisconsin, and No. 51 Penn State. Tempke registered wins against Purdue, No. 22 Michigan, and No. 51 Penn State.

• The No. 4 singles spot was solid for the 'Cats in March with Christian and Dwyer combining for a three-match winning streak at the spot against No. 35 Wisconsin, No. 18 South Alabama, and Purdue.

• Tempke enjoyed a five-match winning streak from 2/2 to 2/18. He recorded wins over Arkansas' Colin Mascall, Harvard's Ashwin Kumar, Mississippi's 79th-ranked Robbye Poole, Penn State's Michael James and 59th-ranked Brian Hung of Michigan. He played No. 1 singles in NU's first three Big Ten contests.