Wildcats Topped by 16th-Ranked Yellow Jackets, 5-2

1/23/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

Jan. 23, 2011

Complete Results

Site: Atlanta, Ga.
Score: No. 16 Georgia Tech 5, No. 9 Northwestern 2
Records: NU (0-2, 0-0 Big Ten), Georgia Tech (1-0, 0-0 SEC)
Next NU Event: Saturday, Jan. 29 vs. Harvard • Evanston • 10 a.m. CT

ATLANTA, Ga. -- Northwestern came up against a sharp opponent playing on its home courts Sunday, falling by a 5-2 score at No. 16 Georgia Tech. NU's Maria Mosolova and Belinda Niu each notched singles victories at No. 1 and No. 4 singles, respectively.

"Georgia Tech is a very good team and we needed to get off to a better start in doubles to put ourselves in a position to win," said head coach Claire Pollard. "We'll head home and regroup to start preparing for a few more tough opponents in national indoors."

Northwestern surrendered the doubles point with defeats at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots despite, beginning at the top spot where Linda Abu Mushrefova and Nida Hamilton dropped an 8-4 score to the Yellow Jackets' Sasha Krupina and Caroline Lilley. At No. 2, NU's freshman-senior combination of Belinda Niu and Maria Mosolova were unable to dig completely out of an early hole and lost 8-5 to Tech's Viet Ha Ngo and Jillian O'Neill.

Conversely, NU's Brittany Wowchuk and Kate Turvy did manage to climb out of an early deficit and score an 8-6 victory over Georgia Tech's Lynn Blau and Elizabeth Kilborn.

NU and Georgia Tech split the first two singles outcomes to come off the courts, with the Wildcats picking up a 6-3, 6-0 victory at No. 1 by Mosolova over Ha Ngo.

After that, however, the Yellow Jackets clinched the dual with a three-set victory at No. 2 by Caroline Lilley over Wowchuk and a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 5 by Krupina over Abu Mushrefova.

Niu was able to pull out a tight second set in her No. 4 match against Lynn Blau to win 6-4, 7-6 (2), before Tech's Elizabeth Kilborn completed the nearly six-hour long match with a victory in a third-set tiebreaker at No. 6 against freshman Nida Hamilton.

Next weekend, Northwestern opens the qualifying rounds of the 2011 ITA National Indoor Team Championship when it hosts Harvard at 10 a.m. in the Combe Tennis Center in Evanston. NU has captured the last two tournament titles in 2010 and 2009.

No. 16 Georgia Tech 5, No. 9 Northwestern 2
Singles:
1: #52 Maria Mosolova (NU) def. Viet Ha Ngo (GT), 6-3, 6-3
2: Caroline Lilley (GT) def. #66 Brittany Wowchuk (NU), 1-6, 6-1, 6-4
3: Jillian O'Neill (GT) def. #120 Kate Turvy (NU), 6-2, 6-1
4: #76 Belinda Niu (NU) def. Lynn Blau (GT), 6-4, 7-6 (2)
5: Sasha Krupina (GT) def. Linda Abu Mushrefova (NU), 6-2, 6-2
6: Elizabeth Kilborn (GT) def. Nida Hamilton (NU), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 1-0 (10-3)

Doubles:
1: Krupina/Lilley (GT) def. #30 Abu Mushrefova/Hamilton (NU), 8-4
2: Ha Ngo/O'Neill (GT) def. Niu/Mosolova (NU), 8-5
3: Turvy/Wowchuk (NU) def. Blau/Kilborn (GT), 8-6

Order of Finish:
Singles (3, 1, 2, 5*, 4, 6)
Doubles (1, 2*, 3)

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