Northwestern University Athletics
No. 2 Northwestern Travels to No. 24 California
3/21/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 21, 2005
EVANSTON, Ill. - After an 18-day break from competition, No. 2 Northwestern (11-1) returns to action Tuesday, March 22 at No. 24 California (9-3). The Wildcats have been off since downing Harvard, 4-3, back on March 4. The Golden Bears, on the other hand, are coming off a recent 6-1 victory over Princeton this past Saturday.
In Berkeley on Tuesday, one of the must-see matches of the day will come at No. 1 singles, where NU freshman-phenom Audra Cohen (Plantation, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) will battle California's freshman superstar Suzi Babos. Cohen is currently the third-ranked singles player in the nation, while Babos is nipping at her heels as the fourth-ranked player. Cohen, 33-3 overall, will look to rebound after stumbling against Harvard's Courtney Bergman 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.
Along with Cohen, the Wildcats will rely on junior Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney), sophomore Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) and Valerie Vladea (Tiffin, Iowa/Burlington Central), all of whom already have at least 20 victories on the year. Vladea holds the longest Wildcat winning streak, having won her last five singles matches and seven of her last eight.
Nationally Ranked `Cats as of March 22, 2005
Singles
No. 3 Audra Cohen
No. 13 Cristelle Grier
No. 64 Alexis Prousis
Doubles
No. 1 Cohen and Grier
T-No. 29 Kristi Roemer and Prousis
Team Ranking
Northwestern's No. 2 ranking is the highest in school history
Perfect Matches... Doubles
Northwestern has swept the doubles point four times this season: vs. DePaul (1/19), at Texas A&M (1/29), at Kentucky (1/30) and at Wisconsin (2/13).
Perfect Matches... Singles
Northwestern has swept all six singles matches twice this season: vs. DePaul (1/19) and against New Mexico (2/4) at the ITA National Indoor Team Championship.
Chasing Recent History
Cohen recorded her 33rd victory of the season Sunday, March 27, against Texas, putting her only seven shy of tying Grier's single-season school record of 40 set in 2004. Cohen has only dropped six sets in 36 total matches.
