Northwestern
Georgia
No. 1 Northwestern Crowned ITA Indoor Team Champions
2/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 16, 2009
ITA Indoor Team Championship Official Website
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 1-ranked Northwestern defended its top national ranking by winning the 2009 ITA Women's Indoor Team Championship in Madison, Wis., downing No. 6 Georgia in the final, 4-1, on Monday. The 'Cats got an early-season look at 15 teams it will likely see again in the NCAA Tournament in May and, when all was said and done, managed to rise above the rest.
"Winning this tournament was certainly one of our team goals coming into the season," said 11th-year head coach Claire Pollard, the 2008 ITA National Coach of the Year. "We have a long, challenging season left ahead of us and plenty still to work on but this is a fantastic accomplishment for our team after a great weekend of tennis."
Northwestern (7-0) is the first Big Ten team and just the sixth school overall to win the ITA Indoor Team Championship in the 22-year history of the event. NU is also the first team from a cold-weather climate to claim the Indoor title. Ten of the tournament's previous 21 winners went on capture the NCAA championship in the same season.
This marked the 'Cats' 11th appearance in the tournament. With its 4-0 mark in 2009, Northwestern pushed its all-time dual record in the event to 23-12.
Georgia, a three-time winner and two-time runner-up at the event, entered Monday's match with an 8-0 record after ousting three California schools -- USC, UCLA and California -- on its way to the final.
It didn't take long for the drama to set in as the two teams promptly split the decisions at the first and third doubles positions. The 10th-ranked tandem of Chelsey Gullickson and Yvette Hyndman of Georgia withstood a late run by NU's Lauren Lui and Georgia Rose to win 8-4 at No. 1, while freshman Elena Chernyakova and junior Samantha Murray stayed unbeaten for the tournament with an 8-1 victory over Cameron Ellis and Naoko Ueshima.
The deciding second doubles match was closely contested from the start, with NU's Maria Mosolova and Keri Robison holding narrow two-game leads at 3-1, 4-2 and 5-3. But Georgia's Monika Dancevic and Nadja Gilchrist eventually tied the score at five before taking a 6-5 lead. Trailing 7-6 with the game at deuce, the 'Cats got a winner at the net by Mosolova before serving up an ace to draw even at seven.
Both teams capably held serve to send the match to a tiebreaker. Northwestern took a commanding 4-0 lead before the Bulldogs answered with a point. The margin was down to two at 5-3 before NU hit a well-placed winner to go up by three. On match point, Dancevic laced a return into the net as Northwestern secured the 1-0 lead entering singles for the fourth straight match.
Inspired by the gutsy doubles victory, the Wildcats came out firing on all cylinders in singles play. No. 28 Rose faced off against 100th-ranked Hyndman, racing out to a 6-1 first-set win on her way to becoming the first singles match off the courts after a 6-2 win in the second. Rose is now 14-6 on the year.
Lui, who on Sunday became the first representative from the Big Ten conference to be named the recipient of the ITA Sportsmanship Award, also made quick work of her opponent at No. 4 singles. Lui overwhelmed Dancevic in the first set, 6-1, and came back from one game down in the second to win, 6-2.
The Bulldogs snagged a point at No. 1 singles as top-ranked Mosolova fell, 6-4, 6-3, to seventh-ranked Gullickson. Mosolova is now 20-3 in her sophomore campaign.
No. 24 Murray, the 2008 Midwest Regional singles champion, came up with the clinching win at No. 3 singles. After winning the first set 6-4 against 44th-ranked Gilchrist, Murray looked as though she may close it out on her service game while leading 5-2. But Gilchrist managed to steal the game only to have Murray break her ensuing serve to ice Northwestern's 4-1 victory.
Robison and senior Nazlie Ghazal did not complete their respective matches against Georgia's Cameron Ellis and Naoko Ueshima once NU clinched the championship.
With the dual season now in full swing, the Wildcats continue their difficult non-conference stretch with a match at No. 7 Georgia Tech at 1 p.m. Sunday.
No. 1 Northwestern 4, No. 6 Georgia 1
Singles
No. 1: Chelsey Gullickson (GA) def. Maria Mosolova (NU), 6-4, 6-3
No. 2: Georgia Rose (NU) def. Yvette Hyndman (GA), 6-1, 6-2
No. 3: Samantha Murray (NU) def. Nadja Gilchrist (GA), 6-4, 6-3
No. 4: Lauren Lui (NU) def. Monika Dancevic (GA), 6-1, 6-2
No. 5: Nazlie Ghazal (NU) vs. Naoko Ueshima (GA), DNF
No. 6: Keri Robison (NU) vs. Cameron Ellis (GA), DNF
Doubles
No. 1: Gullickson/Hyndman (GA) def. Lui/Rose (NU), 8-4
No. 2: Mosolova/Robison (NU) def. Dancevic/Gilchrist (GA), 9-8 (3)
No. 3: Chernyakova/Murray (NU) def. Ueshima/Ellis (GA), 8-1
Previous ITA Indoor Team Champions
Year School
1988 Florida
1989 Stanford*
1990 Stanford*
1991 Florida
1992 Florida*
1993 Stanford
1994 Georgia*
1995 Georgia
1996 Florida*
1997 Florida
1998 Stanford
1999 Florida
2000 Stanford
2001 Stanford*
2002 Georgia
2003 Duke
2004 Stanford*
2005 Stanford*
2006 Stanford*
2007 Georgia Tech*
2008 Georgia Tech
2009 Northwestern
* Won NCAA Championship
Players Mentioned
