Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
ITA National Indoor Championships
Chalk Up Three More for Wildcats
11/7/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Nov. 7, 2003
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Cristelle Grier (Surrey, England/Putney) made a long-day shorter by winning both her ITA National Indoor Championships singles matches in straight-sets.
With a doubles match in the evening, the second-seeded Grier played a total of three matches on the second day of competition.
The day started for Grier with an easy, 6-1, 6-1 rout of Nebraska's Gitte Ostermann in the Round of 16. The NU sophomore then followed her strong performance with an impressive 6-2, 6-1 stomping of Arizona's Dianne Hollands in the afternoon, giving Grier her 10th-consecutive singles victory.
"Cristelle played very cleanly--she seemed relaxed and confident," said head coach Claire Pollard. "She didn't let her opponents get into the matches at all."
Grier faces Georgia's Agata Cioroch in the semifinals at 10:30 a.m. (EST) Saturday. Cioroch is the defending champion at the event, and she has so far not dropped a set in her three matches.
"Cioroch will be a tough opponent," said Pollard. "Tomorrow's match will be as good of a match as any you'll see in college tennis.
"Either way, we'll go out swinging."
The doubles pair of Grier and Jessica Rush (Dallas, Texas/The Hockaday School) had a harder match but still pulled out a victory, 8-6 over New Mexico's Sandy Lukowski and Maja Kovacek.
"The other team played well, as they came up big a lot of times," said Pollard. "But our experience helped us squeak out a win at the end."
Grier and Rush are scheduled to face Georgia's Cioroch and Shadisha Robinson--making for an interesting parallel to Grier and Cioroch's singles match--in the early afternoon. The winning pair will play in the title match shortly thereafter.
