Northwestern
Harvard
No. 8 Northwestern Edges No. 9 Harvard, 4-3
2/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 17, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 8 Northwestern took the doubles point then took three of the first four singles matches to clinch a 4-3 victory over No. 9 Harvard Friday at the Combe Tennis Center. The Wildcats won five total matches on the day to extend their winning streak to five matches.
The Wildcats began the match by taking wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles spots to take the point.
At No. 2, Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) and Feriel Esseghir (Sarasota, Fla./Brickhouse Academy) didn't drop a game to Harvard's Eva Wang and Stephanie Schnitter and took the 8-0 win.
Jamie Peisel (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Country Day) and Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) then clinched the doubles point with an 8-4 win over the Crimson's Preethi Mukundan and Cindy Chu at the No. 3 spot.
The Wildcats nearly pulled off the doubles sweep, but the eighth-ranked team of Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) and Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) but lost the tiebreaker to Elsa O'Riain and Melissa Anderson 9-8.
Holding a 1-0 lead, Northwestern entered the singles portion of the match looking to put the Crimson away early.
Prousis cruised past Beier Ko to give Northwestern a 2-0 lead, winning 6-2, 6-0 at the No. 3 singles spot.
At No. 2 singles, Rose then came through with her 11th-consecutive singles victory by rolling past O'Riain 6-1, 6-3 to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead.
At the No. 4 spot, Peisel fell to the Crimson's Anderson in straight sets 6-0, 7-5, bringing the Crimson back to within striking distance.
Grier then clinched the match for the Wildcats with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Wang at No. 1 singles.
With the match already in hand, Esseghir fell to 67th-ranked Mukundan at No. 5 singles. Esseghir battled back after dropping the first set, but fell in a tight tiebreaker and lost 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (7).
Ghazal also lost at No. 6 singles, falling to Schnitter 6-3, 7-5.
With the win, Northwestern improves to 6-1 this season. The Wildcats return to action at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18 as they open conference play by hosting No. 50 Wisconsin.
Doubles: No. 1 Orain/Anderson (HU) def. Grier/Prousis (NU) 9-8 (7) No. 2 Rose/Esseghir (NU) def. Wong Schnitter (HU) 8-0 No. 3 Peisel/Ghazal (NU) def. Mukundan/Chu (HU) 8-4*
Singles: No. 1 Grier (NU) def. Wang (HU) 6-4, 6-2 No. 2 Rose (NU) def. O'Riain (HU) 6-1, 6-3 No. 3 Prousis (NU) def. Ko (HU) 6-2, 6-0 No. 4 Anderson (HU) def. Peisel (NU) 6-0, 7-5 No. 5 Makundan (HU) def. Esseghir (NU) 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (7) No. 6 Schnitter (HU) def. Ghazal (NU) 6-3, 7-5
Players Mentioned
