Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
ITA Midwest Regional Championships
Three 'Cats Remain in Contention for Regional Singles Titles
10/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Oct. 25, 2009
ITA Midwest Regional Championships Tournament Web Page
EVANSTON, Ill. -- The action inside Northwestern's Combe Tennis Center intensified on Sunday as the 2009 ITA Midwest Regional Championships neared its final stages. Three Wildcats--Maria Mosolova, Lauren Lui and Samantha Murray--won in straight sets to move on to Monday's quarterfinal round, which begins at approximately noon CT following the doubles championship match at 10 a.m.
Singles semifinal matches are scheduled to follow the quarterfinals at approximately 3 p.m. The singles championship match will be played at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Complete results and brackets for singles and doubles can be found at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships Web page, linked at the top of this page.
Each NU player who won on Sunday seemed to become more and more efficient as their matches played out. Top-seeded Mosolova faced no difficulty in defeating Notre Dame's Kali Krisik, 6-3, 6-1, and will face Iowa's Sonja Molnar--the 2009 Big Ten Freshman of the Year--in the quarterfinals.
Murray, the defending Midwest Regional singles champion, overcame Chelcie Abajian of Illinois, 6-2, 6-1, to keep alive her quest for back-to-back titles. Murray, ranked 40th by the ITA, has participated in the last two singles finals of this tournament, preceding her victory last season with a loss in the title match to teammate Georgia Rose in 2007.
Rounding out Northwestern's representation in Monday's quarters is the 89th-ranked Lui, who defeated Megan Fudge of Illinois 6-4, 6-1, and will now meet Michigan's Denise Muresan to vie for a trip to the semifinals. Lui's berth in the quarterfinals marks the furthest that the NU senior has advanced in the singles portion of the ITA Midwest Regional Championships; Lui previously reached the round of 16 as a freshman in 2006.
Northwestern began the day by advancing two doubles pairings into the semifinal matches. Lui and Elena Chernyakova overcame Michigan's Tania Mahtani and Denise Muresan 8-5 in the quarters before falling Notre Dame's Kristy Frilling and Kali Krisik, the 15th-ranked team in the Campbell's/ITA College Tennis polls.
In the bottom half of the doubles bracket, Murray teamed with Stacey Lee to defeat another Michigan pair, Rika Tatsuno and Whitney Taney, 8-6. But in their semifinal match, the 'Cats were edged by DePaul's 31st-ranked Anna Redesci and Selma Salkovic.
Redesci and Salkovic eliminated Northwestern's team of Mosolova and Brittany Wowchuk in the quarterfinals, 8-5.
