Next Match: Harvard 1/27/2019 | 1 p.m. CT

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The No. 21-ranked Alabama men's tennis eased its way to a, 5-2, win over Northwestern on Friday night inside the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Indoor Tennis Facility. With the victory the Crimson Tide improves to 5-0, while the Wildcats drop to 0-4.

"The win tonight wasn't pretty all the time, but I think that our maturity stood out," said head coach George Husack . "We gave away a couple of leads and a couple of advantages. We became less aggressive and more passive and Northwestern wouldn't go away, but it was great to have Edson (Ortiz) and Mazen (Osama) do their thing and doubles were big for us. It was great to have Thibault (Cancel) and Alexey (Nesterov) get back on the board, along with Zhe (Zhou) who clinched the match for us."

After dropping the first doubles match on court one, the Tide bounced back with 6-4 wins on courts two and three to take the early 1-0 advantage.

UA quickly ballooned its lead to 3-0 after junior Edson Ortiz dominated Simen Bratholm, 6-0, 6-2, and then senior No. 24 Mazen Osama bested Nick Brookes, 6-3, 6-3. Northwestern responded with a win on court two to cut the deficit to 3-1.

The Crimson Tide clinched the match at 4-1 when junior Zhe Zhou won a two-setter against Chris Ephron, 7-5, 6-4. The final two singles matches were played out with the Wildcats getting a win on court six, while junior Thibault Cancel ended the match at a final score of 5-2 after his 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, victory over Antonioni Fasano.

Next up for Alabama is a matchup against Harvard as a part of the Alabama-Auburn Invite on Sunday, Jan. 27 at 1 p.m. CT inside the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Indoor Facility. The match will be streamed live on RollTide.com.

Alabama Results

Doubles

Brookes/Bratholm def. Osama/Kaukovalta, 6-4 Cancel/Nesterov def. Ephron/Stary, 6-4 Zhou/Ortiz def. Fasano/Pickens, 6-4

Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3

Singles

Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2, 5, 6, 4

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