Northwestern
Michigan State
Wildcats Sweep Doubles Again, Smoke Spartans 6-1
3/27/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 27, 2005
EVANSTON, Ill. - No. 2 Northwestern swept the doubles competition for the second day in a row and tacked on five singles victories to defeat Michigan State, 6-1, Sunday afternoon at Combe Tennis Center. The Wildcats improve to 13-2 overall and 3-0 in the Big Ten, while the Spartans drop to 10-5 overall and 0-3 in the conference.
At No. 3 doubles, Valerie Vladea (Tiffin, Iowa/Burlington Central) and Jamie Peisel (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Country Day) quickly disposed of Gustafson and Schnitzer in under forty minutes by a score of 8-1. With a 2-1 lead, Peisel slammed a shot right off a Spartan to give her team a 3-1 advantage. The duo did not look back from there, taking the next five games for their third-straight win together.
Kristi Roemer (Piedmont, Calif./Piedmont) and Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) never trailed against Andrews and Brady at No. 2. Sitting on a narrow, 4-3 lead in the eighth game, Prousis lazed a lob-shot on the back line to break the Spartans' serve and give the `Cats a 5-3 lead. Prousis busted out another lob in the 10th game and Roemer provided a pin-point lob of her own to extend their lead to 7-3. They closed the match out 8-3, improving to 10-3 on the season. They have won six of their last eight.
At No. 1, Audra Cohen (Plantation, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) and Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) jumped ahead 2-0, but MSU's Thompson and Bader won the next three games to take the lead. The Spartans' lead over the nation's No. 1 doubles team was short-lived though, as Cohen and Grier won the next four games to regain a comfortable 6-3 lead. Cohen nailed a pair of cross-court winners to extend their advantage to 7-4. In the 12th game, Michigan State broke the Wildcats and took the serve only down 7-5. But Cohen and Grier put the clamps on by not allowing a single point in the 13th game to break the Spartans and take the 8-5 win.
In singles action, senior Andrea Yung (San Marino, Calif./San Marino) showed little to absolutely zero rust in her first match in nearly two months. Yung returned to the lineup at No. 6 and earned her third dual victory of the season 6-0, 6-1. She is now 12-4 overall and 3-0 in dual competition. All of her dual victories have come in straight sets.
Prousis and Vladea both cruised to straight-set victories at No. 3 and 4, respectively.
At No. 1, Cohen fell behind 3-4 in the first set, but won the next three games to take it 6-4. A nearly flawless, 6-1 second set moved her team-leading record to 35-4 overall. She is now just five wins shy of tying Grier's single-season wins record of 40, set in 2004.
With the scoreboard reading 5-1, the `Cats had clinched the match, but Grier was still battling with Spartan freshman Christine Bader. Bader claimed the first set, 6-4, but Grier rebounded to win the second 6-3. With the match clinched in favor of NU, the duo moved to third-set tiebreaker. There, Grier took a slight, 5-4 advantage off a strong forehand just out of Bader's reach. Grier followed that up with a running forehand down the line. Bader would not go away though, and tied it up at 6-6. Grier got back on top with an ace and went on to win the tiebreaker 10-6. Grier improves to 26-6 on the year and has the team's best dual record at 13-2.
Northwestern is next in action Friday, April 1 at Indiana.
Northwestern 6, Michigan State 1
Doubles
No. 1 - #1 Cohen/Grier (NU) def. Thompson/Bader (MSU), 8-5
No. 2 - T-#29 Prousis/Roemer (NU) def. Andrews/Brady (MSU), 8-3
No. 3 - Vladea/Peisel (NU) def. Gustafson/Schnitzer (MSU), 8-1
Singles
No. 1 - #3 Audra Cohen (NU) def. Keri Thompson (MSU), 6-4, 6-1
No. 2 - #13 Cristelle Grier (NU) def. Christine Bader (MSU), 4-6, 6-3, 1-0
No. 3 - #64 Alexis Prousis (NU) def. Pascale Schnitzer (MSU), 6-2, 6-0
No. 4 - Valerie Vladea (NU) def. Shelley Brady (MSU), 6-0, 6-3
No. 5 - Jessica Baron (MSU) def. Jamie Peisel (NU), 6-4, 6-0
No. 6 - Andrea Yung (NU) def. Sarah Andrews (MSU), 6-0, 6-1
Order of finish for doubles: 3, 2, 1
Order of finish for singles: 3, 1, *4, 6, 2
* denotes clincher
