Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Georgia Tech (NCAA Championships)
Quarterfinal 'Cats
5/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 18, 2006
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- With a 4-0 win over sixth-seeded Georgia Tech, Northwestern's 11th-seeded and ninth-ranked women's tennis team stays alive in the NCAA Championships, advancing to the quarterfinals where they face third-seeded Southern California at 5 p.m. Friday, May 19. With the win, the 'Cats now have won 11-straight matches, earned their first appearance in the championship quarterfinals since 1987 and tied a program-record with 13 shutouts in a single season.
"We're absolutely thrilled to have won. It was a tremendous match between two great teams. Georgia Tech is a very good team and we were fortunate to have come out here and win," head coach Claire Pollard said.
The 'Cats took an early 1-0 after claiming a hotly contested doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles.
NU began doubles by playing to opposite results at both ends of the lineup. The 'Cats' 13th-ranked doubles team of Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) and Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) sprinted out to a 5-0 lead over Georgia Tech's 10th-ranked team of Kristi Miller and Lindsay Shosho at No. 1, while NU's No. 3 team of Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) and Jamie Peisel (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Country Day) fell behind the Yellow Jackets' team of Kacie Anson and Alison Silverio 5-0 to start the match.
While Ghazal and Peisel ultimately fell to the 'Jackets' team, 8-2, Grier and Prousis cruised to an 8-4 victory. The two, who are winners of their last eight-straight doubles contests, broke Georgia Tech's team three times in the win.
With each team knotting a doubles win, it all came down to the No. 2 doubles position. There, Northwestern's duo of Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) and Feriel Esseghir (Sarasota, Fla./Brickhouse Academy) starting the match by falling behind 3-1 to the Yellow Jackets' Kelly Anderson and Whitney McCray.
The Wildcats came back to tie the score at 3-3, however, and then broke Georgia Tech's team in the seventh set, turning the tied of the match.
The Wildcats used the lob as their biggest weapon, forcing Georgia Tech to stay near the baseline as the 'Jackets clearly wanted to rush the net. Northwestern used its precise hitting to take the match 8-4.
Taking a 1-0 lead into singles, Northwestern's players knew they still had a long way to go.
The two teams battled back and forth early on in the singles competition, with neither team setting a tone of dominance over the other.
At No. 2, No. 11 Grier was the first Wildcat to finish as she took a 6-4, 6-3 victory over the 63rd-ranked Shosho. In the first set, Grier fell behind 1-2, but rallied to take five of the next seven games, breaking Shosho twice in the process. Grier won four of the first six games in her second set en route to the win. She finished the match with a cross-court winner to give Northwestern a 2-0 lead.
No. 35 Prousis finished shortly afterward with a 7-6 (4), 6-1 decision over No. 65 Silverio. Prousis broke Silverio to open the first set, but Silverio rallied by taking the five games. Prousis responded by taking five-striaght games of her own, taking a 6-5 lead in the set. After Silverio tied the set at 6-6, Prousis buckled down and took the tiebreak 7-4 to win the first set.
Prousis settled in for the second set and didn't let Silverio in the game at all. She took a 2-1 lead after three games, then won the next four - breaking Silverio twice in the process - to give Northwestern a 3-0 lead. Prousis relied on her superior athleticism, getting to balls most players can't, to take the win.
Peisel then clinched the match for Northwestern with a win at No. 4. She began the match by breaking the 'Jackets' 98th-ranked Tarryn Rudman en route to a 6-3 first-set win. While the second set was closer, Peisel outlasted Rudman for the win. With the score tied at five games apiece in the second set, Peisel rallied to take the next two, giving NU its 13th shutout of the season and its first berth in the Championships' round of eight during Pollard's tenure.
"It's been a goal of ours for a while, but we've come up short in the past," Pollard said of advancing to the round of eight. "We certainly set it as a goal and I think this team is different than teams in the past because they seem to be sprinting toward the finish. They are still striving for more," Pollard said.
At No. 1, Rose was neck-and-neck with the nation's top-ranked Miller when the match was clinched. After dropping the first set, Rose rallied in the second, and the match was called with the score at 3-6, 6-1, 1-0.
Esseghir played a stellar match at No. 5 as well. After dropping her first set to McCray, Esseghir rallied by breaking McCray twice en route to a second-set win. Esseghir was within two games of winning the match when it was abandoned, the score was 2-6, 6-3, 5-2.
At No. 6, Ghazal was in her second set with Christy Striplin when the match was decided. She dropped her first set to Striplin in a tiebreak, but led in the second set, 4-3, when the match was abandoned.
With the win, Northwestern improves its all-time record versus Georgia Tech to 3-0. The Wildcats now stand at 24-4 this season.
Northwestern returns to action at 5 p.m. Friday, May 19, as it faces No. 3 seed USC. The Trojans advanced to the round of eight with a 4-1 win over 16th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth earlier today.
Northwestern has advanced to the quarterfinals only two times in program history, in 1986 and 1987.
"I know that they (USC) are very good," head coach Claire Pollard said. "I think they have like five players in the singles draw. We've played great matches with them in the past and we look forward to the opportunity to play them. We aren't satisfied to have reached this point. They are a higher seed and on paper they are suppose to win, but we don't buy into that a whole lot. If we did, then why would you play? We have a lot of respect for them, and we look forward to a great match."
Live scoring and webcasts can be found at .
May 18, 2006NCAA Championships Round of 16_May 18, 2006_Taube South Courts_No. 11 Northwestern 4, No. 6 Georgia Tech 0
Doubles_1. Cristelle Grier and Alexis Prousis-13 (NW) def. Kristi Miller and Lyndsay Shosho-10 (GT), 8-4_ 2. Feriel Esseghir and Georgia Rose (NW) def. Kelly Anderson and Whitney McCray (GT), 8-3 3. Kacie Anson and Alison Silverio (GT) def. Nazlie Ghazal and Jamie Peisel (NW), 8-2 Order of finish: 3, 2, 1 Singles_1. Georgia Rose-45 (NW) led Kristi Miller-1 (GT), 3-6, 6-1, 2-0 - DNF 2. Cristelle Grier-11 (NW) def. Lyndsay Shosho-63 (GT), 6-4, 6-3 3. Alexis Prousis-35 (NW) def. Alison Silverio-65 (GT), 7-6, 6-1 4. Tarryn Rudman-96 (GT) def. Jamie Peisel (NW), 6-3, 7-5 5. Feriel Esseghir (NW) led Whitney McCray (GT), 2-6, 6-3, 5-2 - DNF 6. Christy Striplin (GT) led Nazlie Ghazal (NW), 7-6(3), 4-4 - DNF Order of finish: 2, 3, 4
