Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Minnesota
Victory Over Gophers Lands 'Cats in Big Ten Semis
4/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 24, 2009
MADISON, Wis. -- No. 1 Northwestern began its second season on Friday with an efficient 4-0 defeat of eighth-seeded and 72-ranked Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament at the A.C. Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wis. The Wildcats move on to meet fourth-seeded Ohio State, which advanced Friday with a 4-1 win against Indiana.
This was the second year in a row that NU opened postseason play against Minnesota. Northwestern also downed the Gophers by a 4-0 count in the quarterfinals of the 2008 Big Ten Tournament at Purdue.
"I thought overall we looked pretty strong today," said head coach Claire Pollard, the 2009 Big Ten Coach of the Year. "We still haven't played many matches outdoors so this was a good setting for some of our girls to work on a few aspects of their games."
Playing outdoors on a warm sunny morning in Madison, Northwestern's No. 1 doubles team of Lauren Lui (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) and Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) put the pressure on Minnesota right away. NU broke the serve of Karina Chiarelli and Alessandra Ferrazzi in the second game and in the third rallied from down 0-30 to hold serve and go ahead 3-0. It was all NU from there with Lui slamming home match point at the net to end the match 8-0 in Northwestern's favor.
At No. 3 doubles, Samantha Murray (Altrincham, England/Altrincham Grammar) and Elena Chernyakova (Moscow, Russia/No. 150) won their 13th match in a row, defeating Alex Seaton and Magdalena Wiecha 8-2. Maria Mosolova (Moscow, Russia/No. 204) and Keri Robison (Decatur, Ill./Keystone National) trailed 4-3 at the second spot before taking control to go ahead 7-4, but Murray and Chernyakova's point-clinching win came in just ahead of their finish.
Fresh off of winning her second Big Ten Player of the Year award in two years, top-ranked Mosolova looked dominant at first singles against Chiarelli, winning 6-1, 6-1 to be the first Wildcat off the courts. She stands at 15-4 in duals this year and 31-6 overall.
Senior Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral), ranked No. 125 in the most recent Campbell/ITA College Tennis polls, gave Northwestern a 3-0 lead with her 6-2, 6-2 win over Magdalena Wiecha, which extends her winning streak to 14 matches.
The clinching fourth point came courtesy of Murray at the third spot. The NU junior battled to a 6-3 win in the first set against Ferrazzi and was continuously locked in a series of long rallies in the second, but an early break by Murray in the second proved to be the difference as she took the second 6-4. In all, the match wrapped up in just over two and a half hours.
For additional tournament information including brackets, schedules and live match statistics, please visit Wisconsin's Big Ten Women's Tennis Tournament home page.
No. 1 Northwestern 4, No. 72 Minnesota 0
Singles
1: No. 1 Maria Mosolova (NU) def. Karina Chiarelli (MINN), 6-1, 6-1
2: No. 20 Georgia Rose (NU) vs. Tijana Koprivica (MINN), 6-2, 4-4 (unfinished)
3: No. 44 Samantha Murray (NU) def. Alessandra Ferrazzi (MINN), 6-3, 6-4
4: No. 104 Lauren Lui (NU) vs. Niltooli Wilkins (MINN), 6-2, 4-5 (unfinished)
5: No. 125 Nazlie Ghazal (NU) def. Magdalena Wiecha (MINN), 6-2, 6-2
6: Elena Chernyakova (NU) vs. Alex Seaton (MINN), 6-4, 5-2 (unfinished)
Doubles
1: Lui/Rose (NU) def. Chiarelli/Ferrazzi (MINN), 8-0
2: Mosolova/Robison (NU) vs. Koprivica/Sperling (MINN), 7-4 (unfinished)
3: Chernyakova/Murray (NU) def. Seaton/Wiecha (MINN), 8-2
Order of finish:
Singles (1, 5, 3)
Doubles (1, 3)
Players Mentioned
