Wildcats Keep Four Alive in ITA Singles Championship Draw

10/23/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

Oct. 23, 2010

ITA Midwest Regional Championships
Friday-Tuesday, Oct. 22-26
Varsity Tennis Center
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Next NU Event: Day Three • Sunday, Oct. 24 • 9 a.m. CT
Singles Draw Results (through Saturday)
Sunday Match Schedule

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- All eight Northwestern entrants in the main draw singles bracket at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships won at least one match on Saturday, with four of them going on to successfully reach the bracket's round of 16.

Defending champion and third-seeded Maria Mosolova sped through her debut singles match, defeating Toledo's Polina Guimaraes, 6-3, 6-1, to advance to a third-round match Sunday against DePaul's Katarina Milinkovic.

Near the top of the singles bracket, a first-round bye for freshman Belinda Niu and a first-round win by Linda Abu Mushrefova over Wisconsin's Alaina Trgovich set up a meeting for the two Wildcats. Niu took the first set 6-4 before Abu Mushrefova answered by winning the second 6-3. But Niu persevered down the stretch, winning 6-2 in the third to earn a date Sunday against top-seeded Kristy Frilling of Notre Dame.

Frilling advanced at the expense of NU junior Stacey Lee, who fell 6-1, 6-2, to the top overall seed.

Sophomore Brittany Wowchuk cruised through a pair of matches against Big Ten opponents, first defeating Aleksandra Markovic of Wisconsin (6-2, 6-1) before besting Michigan's Sam Critser on Critser's home courts, 6-3, 6-0.

Kate Turvy also impressed in her first match following a first-round bye, downing DePaul's Gia McKnight, 6-1, 6-3. Turvy will meet Ohio State's Kelsey Haviland on Sunday with a trip to the quarterfinals on the line.

Freshman Nida Hamilton won her first career singles match at the event, 6-2, 6-4 over Akron's Angelika Jogasuria, before falling to No. 2-seeded Denise Muresan of Michigan. Junior Elena Chernyakova suffered a similar fate, falling in the second round to Notre Dame's Shannon Mathews.

The eventual winners of the ITA Midwest Regional Championships receive a trip to the ITA's National Indoor Tournament in November.

Matches resume at 9 a.m. CT Sunday with two rounds of doubles play followed by the singles round of 16. Be sure to visit NUsports.com throughout the tournament for complete results, brackets and schedules.

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