Northwestern University Athletics
Cristelle Grier Advances to NCAA Singles Championship Round of 16
5/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 25, 2006
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Northwestern's senior All-American Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) took a straight-set win over Vanderbilt's 17th-ranked Amanda Fish to advance to the NCAA singles championship round of 16. With the win, Grier automatically earns her fourth-straight All-America honor, making her the first four-time All-American in program history.
Grier began the match as hot as the Palo Alto weather. She mixed her shots well and made Fish move from sideline to sideline all match long, never letting Fish settle into a groove.
While Fish claimed the first game of the match, Grier held serve in the second before winning a deuce to break Fish and take a 3-1 lead. Grier extended her lead to 5-1 before Fish won another game, but Grier promptly won the first set with a decision in the eighth game.
Grier started play in the second set much as she had ended the first. She sprinted out to a 3-0 lead, breaking Fish twice. Fish wasn't out of the match, however, as she proceeded to win three of the next four games to cut Grier's lead to 4-3. Grier won a crucial deuce in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead, then buckled down in the tenth game to take the match.
In the decisive tenth game, Grier battled Fish to a 40-40 score. After the two went back and forth with a fantastic rally, Grier slapped a cross-court forehand to take the advantage. She then sealed the match in the next point by rushing the net and hitting a backhand past the out-of-position Fish to win 6-2, 6-4.
Grier returns to action Friday as she plays Georgia Tech's second-seeded and top-ranked Kristi Miller in the round of 16.
NU's 45th-ranked freshman Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) fell in her second-round singles match to Stanford's seventh-seeded and fifth-ranked Alice Barnes.
After splitting the first two games again in the second set, Barnes took a 3-1 lead before Rose broke her in the fifth to make it 3-2. Barnes again proved to be too much offensively, however, as she won three-straight games to take the match 6-2, 6-2.
Rose ends the season after having one of the best freshman campaigns in program history. She went 38-8 overall, broke NU's consecutive wins record with 29, earned as high as a No. 33 ITA ranking and was named ITA Midwest and Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
Grier and junior Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) begin doubles championship action at 6:30 CT today as they face Arizona State's Roxanne Clarke and Kady Pooler.
