Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats and Badgers Tussle in Saturday Matinee
3/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 12, 2010
EVANSTON, Ill. -- As the only team in the Big Ten to have already played three conference dual matches, No. 1 Northwestern (12-1, 3-0) will try to solidify its grasp on the league's top spot when it hosts Wisconsin at 1 p.m. Saturday in Evanston. For the Badgers (4-8), the match represents their 2010 Big Ten season opener.
All home women's tennis matches at Combe Tennis Center are free for all fans and feature free food following the doubles portion of the match. For those fans who cannot be in attendance, live scoring of Saturday's match can be found by clicking here.
Northwestern has overcome three vastly improved Big Ten squads in their first three league matches and has done so on their opponents' home courts on each occasion. NU took 5-2 decisions against Illinois and Purdue before putting all the pieces together to sweep No. 30 Indiana on March 7. In fact, Saturday's meeting with the Badgers is NU's lone home dual match in the month of March.
The Wildcats have seen two players in particular--senior Lauren Lui and sophomore Stacey Lee--raise their levels during the dual season. Both are unbeaten in dual matches with Lui going 12-0 and Lee, who is 9-0, winning the last eight singles sets she has played. Lee and Lui have also more recently joined forces at the No. 3 doubles spot to go 3-0 thanks to wins against Georgia Tech, Purdue and Indiana.
In the most recently released Campbell's/ITA College Tennis rankings (March 2), Northwestern features two ranked singles players--junior Maria Mosolova (No. 13) and senior Samantha Murray (No. 31)--and three ranked doubles pairings.
Scouting the Badgers
Under the direction of head coach Brian Fleishman, Wisconsin is led by freshman Hannah Berner with a 9-2 singles record on the season and a 3-0 record in the No. 4 spot. Berner is also undefeated with doubles partner Alaina Trgovich, winning their last three matches at the No. 1 spot. Doubles has proven to be the key to victory more often than not for the Badgers: Wisconsin is 3-1 when winning the doubles point and 1-7 when they come up short.
Northwestern owns a 42-15 all-time record against Wisconsin and last season won a 7-0 sweep in its Big Ten regular season opener.
Looking Ahead
After facing Wisconsin, Northwestern steps out of conference once again to take on two of the nation's top teams in No. 4 North Carolina and No. 7 Duke March 23-24. The 'Cats defeated the Tar Heels earlier this year, 4-2, in the finals of the ITA National Indoor Team Championship.
