Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Penn State
Wildcats are Big Ten Champs for 11th Consecutive Season
4/19/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 19, 2009
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2009 Big Ten Women's Tennis Tournament Bracket
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 1 Northwestern celebrated its 2009 Senior Day in style, beating Penn State 7-0 to clinch its 11th consecutive Big Ten Championship. Head coach Claire Pollard and the Wildcats ran through the Big Ten schedule with a perfect 10-0 record for the fifth straight year, upping their winning streak against Big Ten opponents to 74 matches.
Northwestern's run of 11 consecutive Big Ten titles -- best in Big Ten women's tennis history -- ranks as the second-longest in the conference annals for any women's sport, checking in just behind the 12 straight swimming and diving championships that Michigan won from 1987-98. This is the 13th overall Big Ten women's tennis title for Northwestern.
Sunday marked the final home regular season match in the illustrious careers of NU's Nazlie Ghazal, Keri Robison and Georgia Rose.
"I'm certainly proud of what we've accomplished so far this year," Pollard said of her squad's 22-1 regular season that featured an ITA National Indoor Team Championship in February. "Every year you think it can't get better and then it does. We have plenty still we want to accomplish but today was a nice celebration for our team, particularly our three outstanding seniors."
Northwestern's 10-0 Big Ten season featured eight 7-0 sweeps and two 6-1 victories (against second-place Michigan and third-place Illinois). The Wildcats lost just one doubles match and two singles matches in Big Ten play in 2009.
NU's second doubles duo of Robison and Maria Mosolova posted their second runaway victory in as many days, shutting out Leyla Morzan and Denisa Zobeidah with an 8-0 win. Robison and Mosolova have won 13 consecutive matches en route to a 19-2 regular season dual record.
At first singles, Rose and Lauren Lui clinched the doubles point for the 'Cats with an 8-3 win over Sarah Lotto and Lauren McCarthy. Tied at three with Northwestern up an ad-point, Lui split the Nittany Lions down the middle with a backhand volley at the net to break PSU and give Northwestern a 4-3 lead. Northwestern held serve in the next game and did not drop a game the rest of the way.
Samantha Murray and Elena Chernyakova concluded doubles play with their 8-3 win against Dorothy Dohanics and Maria Prishlyak, winning their 12th straight match as a doubles pairing.
Following a brief ceremony during the intermission during which Coach Pollard honored NU's trio of accomplished seniors, the Wildcats went right to work in singles play. Northwestern's singles lineup won a combined 18 games across six matches before Penn State's Denisa Zobeidah finally got the visitors on the board against Murray at No. 2. But that was about all the success Zobeideh could mount against Murray, eventually falling 6-1, 6-1 to the NU junior.
For her part, Robison has made set shutouts a regular occurrence of late, winning 6-0, 6-0 against Maria Prishlyak at No. 5 on Sunday. She has won 6-0 in six of the last seven and seven of the last 10 sets she has played.
Lui completed her 6-0, 6-2 victory against Penn State's Dorothy Dohanics to clinch the match for the 'Cats just seconds before Ghazal hit the winner against Morzan. Ghazal, who ended the regular season on a 13-match winning streak, won by a 6-1, 6-0 count to close her Big Ten regular season dual career with a remarkable 39-1 record.
Freshman Stacey Lee distanced herself down the stretch from Sarah Lotto to win 6-3, 6-3 at sixth singles, wrapping up her first dual season with a 9-1 mark. After that, the final match on the courts was Rose's No. 1 contest, where Rose battled for a break of Lauren McCarthy's serve late in the second to cap off a 6-2, 6-4 victory. The win was Rose's 28th in 30 career Big Ten dual matches.
Later this week, NU begins its second season when it travels to Wisconsin for the 2009 Big Ten Women's Tennis Championship as it tries to take home its 11th straight tournament title.
(Note: This season, the Big Ten enacted the policy of naming the regular season champion the "Big Ten Conference Champion" while the winner of the tournament will be named the "Big Ten Tournament Champion." In the past, the winner of the tournament was declared the "Big Ten Conference Champion.")
No. 1 Northwestern 7, Penn State 0
Singles
1: No. 22 Georgia Rose (NU) def. Lauren McCarthy (PSU), 6-2, 6-4
2: No. 47 Samantha Murray (NU) def. Denisa Zobeideh (PSU), 6-1, 6-1
3: No. 117 Lauren Lui (NU) def. Dorothy Dohanics (PSU), 6-0, 6-2
4: Nazlie Ghazal (NU) def. Leyla Morzan (PSU), 6-1, 6-0
5: Keri Robison (NU) def. Maria Prishlyak (PSU), 6-0, 6-0
6: Stacey Lee (NU) def. Sarah Lotto (PSU), 6-3, 6-3
Doubles
1: Lui/Rose (NU) def. Lotto/McCarthy (PSU), 8-3
2: Robison/Mosolova (NU) def. Morzan/Zobeideh (PSU), 8-0
3: Chernyakova/Murray (NU) def. Dohanics/Prishlyak (PSU), 8-3
Order of finish:
Singles (5, 2, 3*, 4, 6, 1)
Doubles (2, 1, 3)
Players Mentioned
