Northwestern
Iowa
NU Pulls Down Hawkeyes, 6-1
4/11/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 11, 2004
Northwestern-Iowa results
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EVANSTON, Ill.--Fresh off of a 7-0 shutout of Minnesota on Saturday, Northwestern's ninth-ranked women's tennis team made it a perfect weekend with a 6-1 victory over No. 32 Iowa on Easter Sunday at Combe Tennis Center.
The win moved the Wildcats (15-4, 5-1 Big Ten) into a second-place tie with Indiana in the conference standings; both teams trail first-place Illinois (15-4, 6-1), which beat Ohio State 4-3 today.
The 'Cats got off to a quick start in doubles, sweeping all three bouts against the Hawkeyes (11-6, 4-3). Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) and Jamie Peisel (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Country Day) struck first, defeating Deni Alexandrova and Anastasia Zhukova 8-3 at No. 2.
NU then took the doubles point when the second-ranked pair of Cristelle Grier (Surrey, England/Epsom) and Jessica Rush (Dallas, Texas/The Hockaday School) defeated Meg Racette and Hillary Mintz 8-5 at No. 1. Ruth Barnes (Cambridge, England/Hills Road Sixth Form College) and Andrea Yung (San Marino, Calif./San Marino) completed the shutout with an 8-4 victory over Chelsea Glynn and Hilary Tyler at No. 3.
In singles, third-ranked Grier got things going in a hurry, defeating No. 94 Racette 6-0, 6-1. Grier's dominating performance finished nearly 25 minutes before the completion of the next match, Connie Chiang's (Oshkosh, Wis./Oshkosh West) 6-4, 6-1 decision over Tyler at No. 6.
NU then jumped to a 4-0 lead and the win when Prousis edged Glynn 6-4, 6-4 at No. 3.
"The final score was very deceiving," said head coach Claire Pollard. "I thought it was a really hard-fought battle out there; we just did a good job of fighting through."
Both Rush and Peisel provided big comebacks for the 'Cats to finish off the dual match. Peisel lost her first set 6-4 before winning the second set 6-2 and the match tiebreaker 11-9. Rush, who dropped her first set 6-1, won a highly contested second set 7-5 before taking the match tiebreaker 10-7.
"I just tried to compete as hard as I could and get as many balls in the court as I could," Rush said about her big comeback. "I didn't really ever get momentum, but I just tried to hang around as long as I could and get points."
The Wildcats will play their final nonconference match on Thursday when they face Notre Dame at 3 p.m. in Notre Dame, Ind.
No. 9 Northwestern 6, No. 32 Iowa 1
Singles
No. 1 -- #3 Cristelle Grier (NU) def. #94 Meg Racette (UI), 6-1, 6-0
No. 2 -- #55 Jessica Rush (NU) def. Hillary Mintz (UI), 1-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-7)
No. 3 -- Alexis Prousis (NU) def. Chelsea Glynn (UI), 6-4, 6-4
No. 4 -- Jamie Peisel (NU) def. Anastasia Zhukova (UI), 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (11-9)
No. 5 -- Deni Alexandrova (UI) def. Andrea Yung (NU), 7-5, 7-5
No. 6 -- Connie Chiang (NU) def. Hilary Tyler (UI), 6-4, 6-1
Doubles
No. 1 -- #2 Grier/Rush (NU) def. Racette/Mintz (UI), 8-5
No. 2 -- Prousis/Peisel (NU) def. Alexandrova/Zhukova (UI), 8-3
No. 3 -- Yung/Ruth Barnes (NU) def. Glynn/Tyler (UI), 8-4
