Northwestern University Athletics
The 2001 Women's Tennis Season in Review
6/18/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
June 1, 2001
EVANSTON, Ill. - It was another historic season for the Northwestern women's tennis. Just when you think the Wildcats can't do anything to top off the previous campaign, along they come to prove you wrong. And the 2001 season was another example.
Before the dust had settled, the Wildcats had rolled to an undefeated Big Ten regular season campaign, then topped it off with their third straight Big Ten Championship tournament title. NU then hosted an NCAA regional for the first time in history, and rolled to wins over Illinois-Chicago and Kentucky to advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the second year in a row. The season came to a close in Stone Mountain, Ga., though, as the Wildcats fell to USC in the Round of 16, 5-1.
Northwestern entered the 2001 portion of the season ranked 16th, and slid down to 20th on Valentine's Day. That was before the ITA Team Indoor Championships in Madison, Wis., where the Wildcats defeated No. 8 UCLA (7-0) and No. 9 USC (5-2). With those wins, NU bumped up to 11th in the national poll. The Wildcats would never be lower than 12th after that.
The Wildcats followed the ITA event with six straight wins, including five over Big Ten opponents. The highlight of the run was a 4-3 decision over No. 5 Notre Dame.
The team slipped briefly in late March, losing to No. 14 Fresno State (4-3) and No. 11 Cal-Berkeley (5-2). As it turned out, those would be the Wildcats only losses until the NCAA Championships. NU came back with a 6-1 win over No. 18 Baylor, then swept the rest of the Big Ten to complete the unbeaten campaign.
At the Big Ten Championships, drama was in short supply. Northwestern defeated Purdue in the quarterfinal round, 4-1, then shut out fourth-seeded Ohio State (4-0). In the championship match, the Wildcats handed second-seeded Illinois a 4-2 loss to earn their third consecutive Big Ten Championship title.
With a 22-4 overall record and the No. 9 ranking in the nation, Northwestern was asked to host one of 16 four-team NCAA regional championships. The Wildcats entertained Kentucky, Virginia and Illinois-Chicago on a sunny weekend in Evanston, and emerged from the event victorious with a 4-0 win over UIC and a 4-1 win against Kentucky. That moved NU to the Sweet Sixteen at the Lincoln Tennis Center in Stone Mountain, Ga., and a rematch with USC. Unfortunately, this time the Lady of Troy came out victorious, winning a series of three-set matches in singles to claim a 5-1 win.
The Wildcats went 24-5 for the season, with much of the help coming in the middle and bottom of the singles ladder. As a team, Northwestern was 28-1 in the No. 4 spot -- with the only loss coming against USC in the NCAA's -- and 26-3 at No. 5. Individually, sophomore Marine Piriou went 35-6 (24-2 dual matches) while junior Simona Petrutiu went 33-6 (22-2 duals). Freshman Jessica Rush (31-7), junior Lia Jackson (31-12) and senior Colleen Cheng (30-13) also went over the 30-win mark for the year in singles. Senior Shannon Duffy, who missed part of the spring with mononucleosis, went 27-11 overall. In Big Ten play, both Piriou and Rush went 12-0 in regular-season and tournament play, while Cheng and Petrutiu went 10-1 and Duffy went 9-1.
When the season was over, Claire Pollard was named the ITA's Midwest Region Coach of the Year, while Cheng and Jackson were both named first team All-Big Ten. Cheng and Jackson also competed in the NCAA Women's Tennis Singles Championships, with Cheng advancing to the second round and Jackson losing in the first round.
