Northwestern
Maryland
Wildcats Cruise Over Maryland, 5-2
4/5/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern jumped out to a big lead and hung on to beat No. 75 Maryland, 5-2, Sunday afternoon at the Vandy Christie Tennis Center. The 21st-ranked Wildcats swept doubles play for the second day in a row and won four singles matches to beat the Terrapins in the teams' first ever meeting.
Northwestern has won six of its last seven matches and improved to 10-5 overall and 5-2 in the Big Ten.
"We played good doubles today, and that was pleasing," head coach Claire Pollard said. "We still have a lot of growth to go and need to just get outside more."
The `Cats clinched the match with three straight singles wins by the trio of freshmen. Rheeya Doshi, Alex Chatt and Erin Larner won in succession to put the match out of reach for the visiting Terrapins.
Doshi's win was never in doubt as she commanded the match at No. 5 for a 6-3, 6-2 victory. Chatt immediately made it back-to-back wins with a 6-1, 6-3 decision at No. 4, and Larner finished off Maryland with another straight set win at No. 2.
The Terps pulled within 4-2 with a pair of third-set tiebreaks at Nos. 1 and 3, but Brooke Rischbieth closed out the match with a 6-4 win in the third-set at No. 6. Rischbieth won the first set, 6-3 and led 5-3 in the second but Olga Gaistruk was able to come back and send it to the decisive third set.
"It was a really tough match," Rischbieth said. "I just tried to use the wind to my favor as much as possible and run down every single ball every point."
For the second time this weekend, Northwestern swept doubles play to capture an early 1-0 lead. Doshi and Rischbieth, playing at No. 2, fell behind their opponents 4-3 but rattled off five straight points to take the match. Chatt and Lok Sze Leung followed suit, going up 7-2 and hanging on for an 8-5 decision to give the Wildcats the crucial first team point. Larner and Alicia Barnett, partnered at No. 1, led the nation's 62nd-ranked doubles tandem of Luus and Tour, but their match went unfinished.
The Wildcats step outside of Big Ten play for a midweek matchup at Georgia Tech on Wednesday, April 8 at 4 p.m. CT. Northwestern is back at home on Saturday, April 18 against Iowa in the final weekend of the regular season.
Results
Singles
No. 1 -- Ekaterina Tour (MD) def. Alicia Barnett (NU), 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-6)
No. 2 -- Erin Larner (NU) def. Nataliya Bredikhina (MD), 6-4, 6-4
No. 3 -- Welma Luus (MD) def. Lok Sze Leung (NU), 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (10-3)
No. 4 -- Alex Chatt (NU) def. Olga Bredikhina (MD), 6-1, 6-3
No. 5 -- Rheeya Doshi (NU) def. Olivia Gaudreault (MD), 6-3, 6-2
No. 6 -- Brooke Rischbieth (NU) def. Olga Gaistruk (MD), 6-3, 5-7, 6-4
Order of Finish: 5, 4, 2*, 3, 1, 6
Doubles
No. 1 -- Barnett/Larner (NU) vs. #62 Luus/Tour (MD), 6-5 (unfinished)
No. 2 -- Doshi/Rischbieth (NU) def. Bredikhina/Hovsepyan (MD), 8-4
No. 3 -- Chatt/Leung (NU) def. Bredikhina/Gaistruk (MD), 8-5
Order of Finish: 2, 3*
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