Northwestern
Iowa
Wildcats Perfect Against Iowa, Down Hawkeyes 7-0
4/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 9, 2005
EVANSTON, Ill. - In their first outdoor match of the spring Saturday afternoon, the Wildcats somehow managed to one-up themselves. Coming into the match against Iowa having swept their last five doubles points, the `Cats not only kept that streak alive, but recorded six straight-set singles victories to beat the Hawkeyes, 7-0.
"Our doubles teams have all been playing strongly lately," Head Coach Claire Pollard said. "We all put together really good first sets in singles, and closed out those matches nicely, too."
With its third 7-0 victory on the year, Northwestern improves to 16-2 overall, 6-0 Big Ten, while Iowa drops to 9-7, 3-2.
At No. 1 doubles, freshman Audra Cohen (Plantation, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) and junior Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) polished off their 12th-consecutive win in a little over 30 minutes. The nation's top-ranked duo defeated Racette and Veselinovic, 8-1.
Sophomore Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) and senior Kristi Roemer (Piedmont, Calif./Piedmont) won their seventh-straight match at the No. 2 slot, beating Tyler and Zhukova, 8-5. The Hawkeyes made things interesting by tying it at 5-5, but Prousis and Roemer proved too strong.
At No. 3, Pollard matched Valerie Vladea (Tiffin, Iowa/Burlington Central) with junior Feriel Esseghir (Sarasota, Fla./Brickhouse Academy) for the first time this year. The duo got off on the right foot together, defeating Mintz and Lee, 8-5.
Cohen dropped her first game against Racette at the top singles position, but that was about the only time she stumbled. The freshman-phenom recorded her 38th victory on the year with a 6-2, 6-2 win.
Grier moved to within one victory shy of the 30-wins plateau with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Mintz at No. 2. Grier has won her last nine matches and holds the Wildcats' best dual record at 16-2.
Prousis and Vladea mirrored each other at No. 3 and 4 singles, respectively. Both ran away with their first sets, 6-0. Their 26th and 25th victories of the year would not come easily though, as both fell into deep, second-set holes.
Down 5-2, Prousis broke Zhukova to get to within two, and broke her again to tie it up, 5-5. From there, the Lake Forest, Ill. native rediscovered her groove from the first set, winning 7-5. She has won her last nine matches, six of which have come in straight sets.
Vladea fell behind 4-1 in her second set, but battled back to a 5-5 tie and broke Veselinovic to take a 6-5 lead. Veselinovic tied things back up though, sending the match into, what turned out to be, a grueling tiebreak. Vladea outlast Veselinovic, 12-10, winning her fourth-consecutive match.
Senior Andrea Yung (San Marino, Calif./San Marino) continued her perfect duals stretch with a win at No. 5, improving to 15-4 overall, 6-0 dual.
Freshman Alexis Conill (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) won her second-consecutive conference match at No. 6 by beating Tyler 6-1, 6-3. The victory also gets Conill to 15 wins on the year.
Northwestern hosts No. 65 Minnesota at 11 a.m. Sunday, April 10.
No. 2 Northwestern 7, No. 54 Iowa 0
Doubles
No. 1 - #1 Cohen/Grier (NU) def. Racette/Veselinovic (IOWA), 8-1
No. 2 - #36 Prousis/Roemer (NU) def. Tyler/Zhukova (IOWA), 8-5
No. 3 - Vladea/Esseghir(NU) def. Mintz/Lee (IOWA), 8-5
Singles
No. 1 - #3 Audra Cohen (NU) def. Meg Racette (IOWA), 6-2, 6-2
No. 2 - #16 Cristelle Grier (NU) def. Hillary Mintz (IOWA), 6-3, 6-3
No. 3 - #66 Alexis Prousis (NU) def. Anastasia Zhukova (IOWA), 6-0, 7-5
No. 4 - Valerie Vladea (NU) def. Milica Veselinovic (IOWA), 6-0, 7-6 (12-10)
No. 5 - Andrea Yung (NU) def. Jacqueline Lee (IOWA), 6-3, 6-2
No. 6 - Alexis Conill (NU) def. Hilary Tyler (IOWA), 6-1, 6-3
Order of finish for doubles: 1, 2, 3
Order of finish for singles: 3, 6, *1, 2, 5, 4
* denotes clincher
