After waiting an entire year for the NCAA tournament to roll around, the Northwestern women’s tennis team took little time to fulfill its season goal of winning the first two rounds and reaching the Sweet 16.

Once the No. 14 Wildcats (24-4) got to Tulsa, Okla. — the site of the NCAA regional — it took them just 45 minutes to destroy Oral Roberts 5-0 Saturday and then two hours to defeat Tulsa 5-0 Sunday.

“We got the best draw possible, prepared well, took advantage of it and got what we deserved,” coach Claire Pollard.

NU is the only Big Ten team remaining in the tournament and will face top-ranked and undefeated Stanford (27-0) in Malibu, Calif., Thursday.

After losing last year to Arizona State in the second round of the NCAA tournament, NU had made a goal of reaching the Sweet 16 this year.

Before leaving Evanston for the first two rounds, the Cats had prepared, practiced and preached doubles. In the NCAAs, the three doubles matches are worth a combined three points instead of the usual one point.

But NU didn’t even get the chance to play doubles as it won both matches in singles play. Altogether, NU dropped only one set all weekend.

“We prepare to go the distance and if we don’t then it is an added bonus,” Pollard.

In the first round, NU slaughtered Oral Roberts (9-6) of the Mid-Continent Conference. Not only did the Cats post a shutout in team score, but in the combined individual scores NU won 60-0.

“It was a really easy match. We were a little too strong for them,” Pollard said.

The Cats’ Nos. 2-6 singles players all easily won their matches while No. 1 singles Katherine Nasser, on the verge of victory herself before the team match was decided, said she never experienced anything like the onslaught against the Golden Eagles.

“It was crazy. After a point I’d hear, ‘Game Northwestern. Game Northwestern. Set Northwestern,'” Nasser said.

The Cats came in focused and excited for the second-round match against Tulsa. In its first round match, the Golden Hurricane defeated Minnesota 5-3.

The victory over the Golden Gophers was Tulsa’s first-ever win in the tournament and with a huge home crowd in attendance, the Tulsa players may have been a little too cocky.

The Cats were informed before the match that Tulsa (21-6) expected to defeat them and go to Pepperdine. Sophomore Lia Jackson heard the remarks, took umbrage but didn’t believe in Tulsa’s predictions.

“In my book, there was no way they were going to win,” Jackson said. “It was a good experience and we dominated them.”

NU stormed the courts and quickly won the first set in five of the six singles matches. Nasser got the first win of the day as she defeated Tulsa’s Bianca Posada 6-1, 6-1.

When Nasser left the court, four of her five remaining teammates had won their first set. And then to lessen the suspense, Nos. 3-5 ­ Colleen Cheng, Jackson and Marine Piriou ­ each won their second set 6-0.

“It shows how focused we were to go to Pepperdine,” Cheng said. “We didn’t want it to go three sets because then anything can happen.”

But to guarantee the trip, NU needed one more point and Big Ten tournament hero Jennifer Lutgert clinched victory again.

No. 6 singles Lutgert defeated Marjolien van Dongen 6-3, 6-2, and it touched off a moderate celebration that continued through a jubilant team meeting.

“(The celebration was) mild compared to Big Tens, but we are so excited about Malibu,” Nasser said. “Everyone can’t believe we made it to the final 16. And we don’t want to stop now but keep going.”

And now that the Cats have accomplished the team goal of the year, they are very relieved to win the regional and experience a more scenic road trip compared to Tulsa.

“Tulsa had no beach, no interesting sites but it didn’t matter because we got our job done and now we can go to Malibu,” Cheng said.