Northwestern University Athletics
Nineteenth-Ranked Northwestern Faces Kentucky Friday Evening
2/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 10, 2011
No. 19 Northwestern (3-3, 1-0 Big Ten) vs. Kentucky (0-4, 0-0 SEC)
Friday, Feb. 11
Combe Tennis Center
Evanston, Ill. • 6 p.m.
Live Stats: NUsports.com
2011 Northwestern Dual Statistics (HTML)
EVANSTON, Ill. -- With a healthy dose of big-match experience to its credit after a tough 4-3 loss to Duke last week, No. 19 Northwestern looks to bounce back when it hosts Kentucky at 6 p.m. on Friday in the Combe Tennis Center in Evanston.
The match offers free admission for all fans as well as free pizza and a serving contest during the intermission courtesy of Northwestern Women's Tennis.
Doubling Up
Northwestern has settled on a successful formula in doubles play after a slow start to the year, with two of the three starting tandems carrying four-match winning streaks into Friday's tilt with Kentucky. Most notably, the 30th-ranked team of Linda Abu Mushrefova and Nida Hamilton improved to 5-1 in dual action this season with an incredible comeback against the nation's No. 4 team of Duke's Nadine Fahoum and Ellah Nze last Sunday. Abu Mushrefova and Hamilton, who together captured the 2010 ITA Midwest Regional Championship last fall, rallied from a 6-2 deficit to complete NU's doubles sweep of the Blue Devils.
Last Time Out
It may only have been an early-season nonconference matchup, but Sunday's dual in Evanston between No. 23 Northwestern and sixth-ranked Duke had all the look and feel of one with everything on the line. A young NU lineup pushed a veteran Duke team to the limits, but the visitors managed to win two of the last three singles matches on the courts to escape with a 4-3 victory.
The Wildcats swept a strong Blue Devil doubles lineup that featured three tandems ranked in the top 40 in the country and received singles wins from senior Maria Mosolova and sophomore Brittany Wowchuk in a dual that lasted over four and a half hours.
Scouting Kentucky
Under the direction of sixth-year head coach Carlos Drada, Kentucky arrives at Northwestern in search of its first dual victory the year after dropping its first four decisions to start the season. UK has already played two Big Ten opponents in 2011, including a heart-breaking 4-3 loss to No. 31 Ohio State on Wednesday. As was the case for NU in its loss to Duke last week, Kentucky swept Ohio State in doubles play and recorded wins at No. 1 and 2 singles but ultimately fell in the other four matches. The Wildcats are anchored at those top two singles spots by senior Megan Broderick and sophomore Jessica Stiles.
Northwestern and Kentucky last met in a dual match setting during the second round of the NCAA Championships in 2009 when NU scored a 4-1 victory in Evanston. Prior to that, these two schools had not met in the regular season since 2006.
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