Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
New Mexico
'Cats Blank New Mexico, Advance in Team Championship
1/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Jan. 31, 2009
Northwestern vs. Tulsa Live Stats
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Top-ranked Northwestern posted wins at all six singles positions and all three doubles spots en route to a 7-0 win against No. 46 New Mexico in Evanston Saturday in its first dual match of the year. NU will now face the winner of this afternoon's contest between Tulsa and Washington State at 2 p.m. Sunday for a spot in the Indoor Team Championship event in Madison, Wis.
New Mexico falls to 1-2 on the season.
Entering singles play with the doubles point secured, NU received a strong performance at the No. 1 singles spot by senior Georgia Rose, who was the first singles match off the court following a 6-1, 6-0 win against UNM's Mackenzie White.
Junior Samantha Murray, ranked No. 24 nationally in singles play, claimed a 6-2, 6-2 victory against the Lobos' Ola Abou-Zekry while senior Nazlie Ghazal did not surrender a game in her two-set win over Manumea Durie at No. 4 singles. Senior Keri Robison improved to 10-5 this year in singles play with a 6-0, 6-1 win vs. Maria Sotirchos.
The last match on the court featured NU's Lauren Lui, who trailed 5-3 in the second set to Emma Hayman before sandwiching two holds around a break of Hayman's serve to claim a 6-5 advantage. Lui brought the contest to a match point but Hayman rallied to send the set to a tiebreaker, where Lui closed out the match with a 7-3 win.
New Mexico came out strong in doubles play, getting out to 2-0 leads in all three matches. At the No. 2 position, New Mexico gained a 3-0 advantage against Rose and Elena Chernyakova before Chernyakova landed a soft backhand drop shot on the second break point to win a game back for NU. Before long, Northwestern rallied to take a 4-3 lead and eventually overcame the Lobos, 8-3.
Maria Mosolova and Lui teamed up at the lead doubles position, where New Mexico's Ola Abou-Zakry and Maria Sotichos managed to break Northwestern's serve and tie the match at five. But NU responded by breaking the Lobos' serve and take a lead it would not relinquish on the way to an 8-5 win.
The 26th-ranked duo of Robison and Murray also rallied to come back in their match and post an 8-4 win against Anya Villanueva-Forte and Ashley Bonner, with Robison serving in the final game to ice the match.
Last season, Northwestern became the first Big Ten team to reach the final of the Indoor Team Championship before falling to Georgia Tech in the finals.
No. 1 Northwestern 7, No. 46 New Mexico 0
Singles
No. 1: Georgia Rose (NU) def. Mackenzie White (NM), 6-1, 6-0
No. 2: Samantha Murray (NU) def. Ola Abou-Zekry (NM), 6-2, 6-2
No. 3: Lauren Lui (NU) def. Emma Hayman (NM), 6-1, 7-6 (3)
No. 4: Nazlie Ghazal (NU) def. Manumea Durie (NM), 6-0, 6-0
No. 5: Keri Robison (NU) def. Maria Sotirchos (NM), 6-1, 6-0
No. 6: Stacey Lee (NU) def. Victoria Tessmar (NM), 6-0, 6-1
Doubles
No. 1: Lui/Mosolova (NU) def. Abou-Zekry/Sotirchos, 8-5
No. 2: Chernyakova/Rose (NU) def. Hayman/White, 8-3
No. 3: Murray/Robison (NU) def. Villanueva-Forte/Bonner, 8-4
Players Mentioned
