Northwestern
Notre Dame
NU Ousts Notre Dame, Advances to Team Tournament Final
2/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 15, 2009
ITA Team Championship Official Website
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 1 Northwestern handled the upset-minded Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, 4-1, in the semifinals of the ITA Team Championship in Madison, Wis., Sunday to earn a spot in the tournament final for the second consecutive year. NU is set to take on No. 6 Georgia for the championship at 11 a.m. Monday.
A year ago, NU became the first Big Ten team to reach the finals of the Team Championship before falling to Georgia Tech, 4-2. Live scoring for Monday's final will be available at the ITA official tournament website and on the live blog offered by host Wisconsin.
On Sunday, the ITA also announced that Northwestern junior Lauren Lui (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) is the 2009 recipient of the ITA Sportsmanship Award as chosen by the 16 coaches whose teams are competing at the Team Championship in Wisconsin. Lui is the first Northwestern player as well as the first player from the Big Ten conference ever to win the honor, which recognizes outstanding sportsmanship by a student-athlete who exemplifies the spirit of college tennis both at the annual event and throughout her career.
"I'm really very proud of Lauren and what she means to our program," head coach Claire Pollard said. "She's exactly the type of student-athlete we look for to represent Northwestern and obviously the other top tennis programs around the country have taken notice of that. She's very deserving of this award."
Lui contributed to Sunday's defeat of Notre Dame with a 6-1, 6-3 win at No. 4 singles against Kristen Rafael, upping her season mark to 18-8.
She also partnered with Georgia Rose at the No. 1 doubles position where they faced the nation's top-ranked doubles pair in Kristy Frilling and Kelcy Tefft. With the score tied at eight in a terrific competition, the match was suspended following Northwestern's clinching of the doubles point with wins at the second and third positions.
Maria Mosolova and Keri Robison eked out an enormous 9-7 win over Cosmina Ciobanu and Kali Krisik while Elena Chernyakova and Samantha Murray continued their success together with an 8-3 defeat of Shannon Mathews and Colleen Rielley.
In singles competition, Rose led the way for NU with a 6-0, 6-3 dismissal of No. 39 Kristy Frilling at second singles while Murray followed suit with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over No. 46 Kali Krisik.
Top-ranked Mosolova and senior Nazlie Ghazal, who had the dramatic three-set win on Saturday to vault Northwestern into the semis, both had their matches abandoned after NU clinched the fourth point. Mosolova had split her first two sets against No. 45 Kelcy Tefft while Ghazal trailed in the second set against Ciobanu at No. 5.
Notre Dame's Shannon Mathews dealt the 'Cats their lone singles loss with a 6-0, 6-2 defeat of Robison.
In the Fighting Irish, Northwestern (6-0) overcame a team that had pulled off two impressive upsets on its way to the semifinals, including wins against No. 5 Stanford and No. 4 Baylor.
Georgia advanced to the finals with a 4-2 defeat of second-ranked Cal in the semis following early-round wins against Southern Cal (4-3) and No. 3 UCLA (6-1).
No. 1 Northwestern 4, No. 14 Notre Dame 1
Singles
No. 1: Maria Mosolova (NU) vs. Kelcy Tefft (ND), DNF
No. 2: Georgia Rose (NU) def. Kristy Frilling (ND), 6-0, 6-3
No. 3: Samantha Murray (NU) def. Kali Krisik (ND), 6-1, 6-4
No. 4: Lauren Lui (NU) def. Kristen Rafael (ND), 6-1, 6-3
No. 5: Cosmina Ciobanu (ND) vs. Nazlie Ghazal (NU), DNF
No. 6: Shannon Mathews (ND) def. Keri Robison (NU), 6-0, 6-2
Doubles
No. 1: Lui/Rose (NU) vs. Frilling/Tefft (ND), DNF
No. 2: Mosolova/Robison (NU) def. Ciobanu/Krisik (ND), 9-7
No. 3: Chernyakova/Murray (NU) def. Mathews/Rielley (ND), 8-3
Players Mentioned
