Northwestern University Athletics
Big Ten Honors Mosolova as Player of the Week
2/17/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 17, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. -- On the heels of Northwestern's historic victory at the ITA Indoor Team Championship, the Big Ten Conference tabbed NU sophomore Maria Mosolova as the league's Player of the Week Tuesday. While the Wildcats' win was truly a team effort, Mosolova's performances at No. 1 singles and No. 2 doubles were invaluable to the overall success of Northwestern.
This is Mosolova's second weekly Big Ten laurel of the season and the fourth of her career.
In one of NU's most pressure-packed matches of the weekend, Mosolova and partner Keri Robison faced the 34th-ranked duo of Monika Dancevic and Nadja Gilchrist at second doubles. It was closely contested from the start and, trailing 7-6 with the game at deuce, the 'Cats got a winner at the net by Mosolova before serving up an ace to draw even at seven.
Both teams capably held serve to send the match to a tiebreaker. Northwestern took a commanding 4-0 lead before the Bulldogs answered with a point. The margin was down to two at 5-3 before NU hit a well-placed winner to go up by three. On match point, Dancevic laced a return into the net as Northwestern secured the 1-0 lead entering singles.
Mosolova and Robison were 4-0 in the tournament as NU clinched the doubles point in all four matches on its way to becoming the first Big Ten team--and the first team from a cold-weather climate--to win the crown in the 22-year history of the event.
Ranked No. 1 nationally in singles, Mosolova began her weekend with a three-set defeat of eighth-ranked Julia Cohen of Miami (Fla.) before knocking off Duke's Mallory Cecil, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3, for her 20th win of the season.
Northwestern's non-conference schedule gets no easier as the 'Cats head to No. 7 Georgia Tech at 1 p.m. Sunday. Mosolova is set to face off against 11th-ranked Amanda McDowell, the 2008 NCAA singles champion. The two last met on Oct. 3 at the ITA All-American Championships where Mosolova notched a three-set win.
