Northwestern University Athletics
'Cats Punch Ticket to NCAA Doubles Semifinals
5/27/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 27, 2006
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Northwestern's All-American doubles duo of senior Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) and junior Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) continues to tear through the NCAA doubles championship bracket and advances to the semifinals after a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Georgia Tech's 10th-ranked team of Lindsay Shosho and Kristi Miller. The Wildcats advance to the doubles semifinals for the second-straight year and face Stanford's top-seeded Alice Barnes and Anne Yelsey Sunday at 5 p.m. CT.
Georgia Tech claimed the first two games of the match, but the 'Cats broke the Yellow Jackets in the second and quickly rallied to tie the score at 2-2.
Georgia Tech went up 3-2 with a fifth-game win, but Northwestern battled back from a 40-15 deficit in the sixth game and Grier smashed home the winner to tie the first set at three games apiece.
In a crucial seventh game, the Wildcats turned the tide of the match when they broke Georgia Tech for the second time in the match to take a 4-3 lead. They split the next two games with the 'Jackets, but then won the 10th game to take the set.
With the score tied at 30-30 in that 10th game, Prousis served an ace, then forced Shosho into an error on the following return to seal the set for NU.
As a top-10 team would do, Georgia Tech promptly got back into the match by taking four of the first five games of the second set. Northwestern began to stage a comeback late in the second set, but with the Yellow Jackets leading 5-3, Georgia Tech won a deuce in the ninth game to give each team one set.
The two teams each held serve through the first two games in the third set, but the Wildcats turned on the intensity and sprinted out to a 5-1 lead, breaking the Yellow Jackets twice.
Georgia Tech won two-straight at the end of the set, but Northwestern kept focus and came through with a win in the ninth game to punch their ticket into the doubles semifinals.
The Wildcats now have won 13-straight doubles matches and own an overall record of 31-6 on the season.
NU returns to action Sunday when it faces Stanford's top-ranked and top-seeded team at 5 p.m CT.
