Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Michigan
Still Streaking: Wildcats Emerge as Big Ten Tournament Champions
4/26/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 26, 2009
Results
MADISON, Wis. -- Northwestern, ranked No. 1 in the Campbell/ITA College Tennis polls, won its second championship this season on the courts of the A.C. Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wis., downing 18th-ranked Michigan 4-0 in the final match of the 2009 Big Ten Tournament. This is the 11th consecutive league tournament win for NU and the fifth straight season it has knocked off the Wolverines in the final.
Northwestern (25-1, 10-0 Big Ten), which also won the ITA National Indoor Team Championship indoors at the Nielsen Tennis Center in February, will enter the NCAA Championships, taking place in two weeks, riding a 17-match winning streak.
"I'm really proud of this group because it gets tougher every year with everyone making such a big deal about our streak," said 11th-year head coach Claire Pollard. "Michigan played well but I thought we responded just as well and we needed that challenge going into NCAAs. I think if we continue to do the things we've been focusing on all year we have a shot at the title and that's all you can ask for."
Second-seeded Michigan (17-6) forced the 'Cats to labor for the doubles point, but Maria Mosolova and Keri Robison held down the second spot for NU as they have all season. The duo gained a break advantage at 4-2 when a lob by Mosolova went unreturned on a miscommunication between Whitney Taney and Rika Tatsuno. Michigan fought to make it interesting but the NU tandem won their 16th consecutive match by an 8-5 score.
Northwestern's third doubles pairing of Samantha Murray and Elena Chernyakova got off to a slow start Sunday against Lindsay Howard and Denise Muresan, falling behind 4-0. NU took three of the next four to narrow the deficit to 5-3. Trailing 7-3, Chernyakova hit two winners and Murray won a deciding rally as NU broke the Wolverines' serve to pull within three. Chernyakova held serve in the next game, but Michigan put the match away in its service game to win 8-5.
On the middle court, NU's Georgia Rose and Lauren Lui squared off with 27th-ranked Chisako Sugiyama and Tania Mahtania in the No. 1 doubles match. NU held a two-game lead when, after a long series of ad and deuce points, Michigan managed to find the winner to pull within one at 4-3. Another drawn-out game ensued where this time Lui and Rose prevailed thanks to a backhand overhead shot by Lui to restore a break advantage for NU.
Up 7-3, NU trailed 15-30 before sending the match deuce, where it remained for nearly 10 minutes. With Rose serving, both teams had multiple ad points to win the game but could not do so until a return into the net by the Wolverines ended the match at 8-3 and clinched the 'Cats' 25th doubles point in 26 dual matches this season. The victory by Rose and Lui avenged their 9-8 loss to the Michigan duo during the regular season dual on March 29.
"I thought that win at first doubles was obviously a spark for us today because Michigan was playing very strong in that match," Pollard said. "Georgia and Lauren battled hard to win and I'm proud of the way they kept it together."
Michigan again seemed ready to stage a few upsets in singles to take a run at their first tournament title since 1997. Lui fell behind 4-0 against Whitney Taney--who did not play singles when the two teams last met--but used a full array of shots to quickly respond and even the score at four. Lui led the rest of the way but did not finish her match before Northwestern clinched the championship.
In her second singles match, Rose was down 2-0 but stormed back to win six games in a row to go up a set on No. 97 Rika Tatsuno. Rose fell behind 3-2 in the second but didn't allow Tatsuno to win a game the rest of the way, winning 6-3 to put the Wildcats ahead 3-0.
Mosolova, however, took control early against 62nd-ranked Chisako Sugiyama, who she had previously defeated in the second round of the 2008 NCAA Singles Championship tournament. Mosolova claimed the first set 6-2 before breezing through the second 6-1 to clinch the match and improve to 16-4 in dual play.
Robison also continued her strong play at sixth singles with a 6-3, 6-1 straight-set win against Michigan's Michelle Sulahian, getting off the courts first for Northwestern while upping her season singles mark to 27-8.
Northwestern will soon find out its first and second-round NCAA tournament opponents, with play scheduled to begin the weekend of May 8-11.
No. 1 Northwestern 4, No. 18 Michigan 0
Singles
1: No. 1 Maria Mosolova (NU) def. No. 62 Chisako Sugiyama (MICH), 6-2, 6-1
2: No. 20 Georgia Rose (NU) vs. No. 97 Rika Tatsuno (MICH), 6-2, 6-3
3: No. 44 Samantha Murray (NU) vs. Denise Muresan (MICH), 4-6, 3-3 (unfinished)
4: No. 106 Lauren Lui (NU) vs. Whitney Taney (MICH), 6-4, 3-2 (unfinished)
5: No. 125 Nazlie Ghazal (NU) vs. Tania Mahtani (MICH), 4-6, 4-1 (unfinished)
6: Keri Robison (NU) def. Michelle Sulahian (MICH), 6-3, 6-1
Doubles
1: No. 21 Lui/Rose (NU) vs. No. 27 Sugiyama/Mahtani (MICH), 8-3
2: No. 33 Mosolova/Robison (NU) def. Taney/Tatsuno (MICH), 8-5
3: Howard/Muresan (MICH) def. Chernyakova/Murray (NU), 8-5
Order of finish:
Singles (6, 2, 1)
Doubles (2, 3, 1)
