Northwestern
Penn State
Sixth-Ranked Wildcats Claw Nittany Lions in 7-0 Shutout
4/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 2, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern's sixth-ranked women's tennis team turned in another dominating performance Sunday when it took every match en route to a 7-0 shutout over conference foe Penn State at the Combe Tennis Center. The 'Cats now have won six-straight matches, with the last five resulting in shutouts -- a feat that hasn't been achieved since Sandy Stap Clifton's Wildcats recorded five-straight shutouts in the 1986-87 season.
"This was another great performance by our team," head coach Claire Pollard said. "It's great to get the shutout, but I've got to give credit to Penn State. They played with good energy and competed well. I think our experience helped us through this match today."
The Wildcats started the day by taking all three doubles matches for the second-straight match.
At No. 2 doubles, Alexis Conill (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) and Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) rolled past Penn State's Katelyn BeVard and Jenny Shular 8-2 for Northwestern's first win of the day. After being tied 1-1 to start the match, Conill and Rose rattled off wins in seven of the next eight games to take the victory.
Northwestern's team of Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) and Jamie Peisel (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Country Day) improved its record at No. 3 doubles to 12-2 with a decision over Dorothy Dohanics and Lauren Holzbert. The duo beat the Nittany Lions 8-3 to clinch the doubles point for the 'Cats.
With the doubles point already secured, Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) and Feriel Esseghir (Sarasota, Fla./Brickhouse Academy) showed their resilience with a comeback win at the No. 1 doubles spot.
After falling behind the Nittany Lions' Sasha Abraham and Andreea Niculescu 4-0 to begin the match, the two stormed back by winning five-consecutive games to take a 5-4 lead. Penn State rallied with two-straight of its own, but Grier and Esseghir took the next three games and the match 8-6. The Wildcats broke the Lions four times and Grier rocketed a forehand winner to complete the doubles sweep for the 'Cats.
Grier took the momentum from her doubles win into her singles match and blew past Niculescu at No. 2 singles. Grier took the win 6-0, 6-2 while improving her record at No. 2 singles to 4-0.
Rose came through with her 20th-straight singles win of the year when she topped Abraham at No. 1 singles 6-2, 6-4. Rose was in control throughout the match and won a pivotal deuce in the second set to go up 5-4. After falling behind in the final game of the second set, Rose rallied back to increase Northwestern's lead to 3-0.
Ghazal clinched the match for Northwestern by picking up the victory at No. 5 singles. She won her first match at the No. 5 spot this year by topping Holzberg 6-3, 6-4 for her seventh-consecutive singles win.
Peisel then took her first win of the year at No. 3 singles when she beat BeVard 6-4, 6-3. BeVard threatened to come within a point in the second set when Peisel led 5-3. With the set's ninth game tied at 40-40, Peisel used a forehand winner to take the advantage and BeVard sent a shot long to secure the win for Peisel.
The day's only match to go into a third set was at No. 4 singles, where Esseghir outlasted Shular for the win. After taking her first set, Esseghir dropped the second, but fought through a tight third-set tiebreaker. With the tiebreaker tied at 8-8, Esseghir tallied two points to take then win 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (8).
With the win, Northwestern improves to 13-3 this season and is 5-0 in conference play.
Northwestern wins five-consecutive shutouts for the first time since the 1986-87 season, and does it in regular-season play for the first time since the 1982-83 season. The Wildcats have never posted six-consecutive shutouts.
The Wildcats return to action at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 5 when they travel to Notre Dame, Ind., to face the second-ranked Fighting Irish.
Tennis Match Results Penn State vs Northwestern Apr 02, 2006 at Evanston, Ill.#6 Northwestern 7, Penn State 0 Singles competition: 1. #36 Rose, Georgia (NU) def. Abraham, Sasha (PSU) 6-2, 6-4 2. #9 Grier, Cristelle (NU) def. Niculescu, Andreea (PSU) 6-0, 6-2 3. Peisel, Jamie (NU) def. BeVard, Katelyn (PSU) 6-4, 6-3 4. Esseghir, Feriel (NU) def. Shular, Jenny (PSU) 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8) 5. Ghazal, Nazlie (NU) def. Holzberg, Lauren (PSU) 6-3, 6-4 6. Conill, Alexis (NU) def. Dohanics, Dorothy (PSU) 6-3, 6-0
Doubles competition: 1. Esseghir, Feriel/Grier, Cristelle (NU) def. Niculescu, Andreea/Abraham, Sasha (PSU) 8-6 2. Conill, Alexis/Rose, Georgia (NU) def. BeVard, Katelyn/Shular, Jenny (PSU) 8-2 3. Ghazal, Nazlie/Peisel, Jamie (NU) def. Dohanics, Dorothy/Holzberg, Lauren (PSU) 8-3
Match Notes: Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (2,1,5,6,3,4) T-2:36 A-200
Players Mentioned
