Huskies Open Conference Play with Close Match Against #42 Northwestern

Friday, March 6

Evanston, Ill.

4:00 PM

University of Washington

Northwestern

Photo by: Washington Athletics

Huskies Open Conference Play with Close Match Against #42 Northwestern

March 06, 2026 | Men's Tennis

Evanston, Ill.- The University of Washington Men's Tennis Team opened Big Ten play this evening with a 4-2 loss against the No. 42 Northwestern University Wildcats. Washington is now (6-7) on the season and (0-1) Big Ten play, as the Dawgs will travel further across the state to play the No. 11 University of Illinois at 10am on Sunday morning.

Opening with a couple of new pairings from Doubles, as Nikola Plavsic and Daniel Bien partnered at the two, and Rohan Belday and Stephane Kamendje paired from the three. Both matches on these new pairings inspired a change in the Huskies, as all matches were a back-and-forth affair, including a ranked match on Court One as #58 Soham Purohit and Brett Pearson, took on the No. 26 pair of Pate/Casey. This back-and-forth affair would ultimately end in a 1-0 Wildcat advantage, with Pearson/Soham and Bien/Plavsic dropping their matches 4-6.

Coming into singles down 1-0, the Huskies responded quickly with four of five matches taking a first-set advantage. Moving into the second set, the Huskies would equalize the match by way of a Soham Purohit 6-3, 6-1 victory.

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Soham with the blazing Set 2 & Match DUB: 6-3, 6-1??
+1 Dawgs
UW - 1, NU - 1#GoHuskies???? pic.twitter.com/lXHBYlEc6V
— Washington Men's Tennis (@UW_MTennis) March 7, 2026

The Dawgs would then proceed to go down 1-3 with a pair of second-set losses. Hyeonseok Seo, the freshman who clinched the victory over Tulane at the Diablo Invitational last weekend, would go on to rally from down 1-3 to clinching the second set 7-6(2) win, while also giving the Dawgs their second and final point of the match.

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Hyeon with the Set 2 & Match DUB: 6-3, 7-6(2)??
+1 Dawgs
UW - 2, NU - 3#GoHuskies???? pic.twitter.com/HNchN7WqDG
— Washington Men's Tennis (@UW_MTennis) March 7, 2026

The match would end shortly thereafter, as after Rohan Belday opened his third set with a 1-0 lead after a marathon first set and a closely contested second. Brett Pearson would go on to drop his third set 4-6 after an intense first set 6-4 victory, and Northwestern's Schiffman equalized the second. This ultimately would lead to Northwestern pulling out the 4-2 win.

Up Next
Washington returns to play Sunday morning with a Big Ten matchup, as No. 11 Illinois will be hosting the Huskies from the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana, IL.

Washington Men's Tennis
March 6, 2026
Evanston, Ill. | Combe Tennis Center | 4:00 PM PT

#42 Northwestern 4
Washington 2

Doubles
1. #26 Casey/Pate (NU) def. #58 Soham Purohit/Brett Pearson (UW) - 6-4
2. Mahjoob/Schiffman (NU) def. Daniel Bien/Nikola Plavsic (UW) - 6-4
3. Miller/Yang (NU) vs. Rohan Belday/Stephane Kamendje (UW) - 5-4 (DNF)
Order of Finish: (1, 2)

Singles
1. Soham Purohit (UW) def. Carter Pate (NU) - 6-3, 6-1
2. Cyrus Mahjoob (NU) def. Stephane Kamendje (UW) - 6-3, 6-4
3. Greyson Casey (NU) vs. Rohan Belday (UW) - 6-7, 6-4, 1-0 (DNF)
4. Ethan Schiffman (NU) def. Brett Pearson (UW) - 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
5. Hyeonseok Seo (UW) def. Chad Miller (NU) - 6-3, 7-6 (7-2)
6. Cooper Han (NU) def. Daniel Bien (UW) - 6-2, 6-3
Order of Finish: (1, 2, 6, 5, 4)

Match Notes (Prior to Match):
Washington 6-6
Northwestern 11-3; National ranking #42
All-time record: UW leads 5-3

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