It was supposed to be No. 9 versus No. 49 Saturday in Williams burg, Va., as the Northwestern women’s tennis team visited William & Mary.
By the end of the day, however, the higher-ranked Wildcats had a tough time believing the polls as they were upset by the Tribe in a 6-1 loss at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center.
“William & Mary was a team in disguise – they’re a much better team than people expect,” NU senior Lia Jackson said. “They were just a better team than us on Saturday.”
The Tribe is playing the role of giant killer so far this season, adding their victory over the Cats to a season-opening win over No. 36 Pennsylvania.
NU (1-1) lost all but the No. 3 singles and No. 3 doubles matches, with sophomore Jessica Rush capturing the Cats’ only point by defeating Lena Sherbakox, 6-4, 6-2.
The No. 3 doubles team of sophomores Stacy Kokx and Ruth Barnes also notched a win, 9-8 (3). But the Cats failed to collect the doubles point because the other two NU pairs lost.
Last week the Cats defeated DePaul 6-1 using the exact same singles lineup they sent to William & Mary (2-0) on Saturday. But this time, almost everyone came up empty-handed.
No. 1 singles player Marine Piriou and No. 2 singles player Jackson fell in straight sets to a pair of unranked opponents. Piriou and Jackson are ranked nationally, with Piriou at No. 9 and Jackson at No. 55. The two women also paired up as a No. 1 doubles tandem but lost that match 8-5.
Ruth Barnes dropped her No. 6 singles match in straight sets while senior Simona Pertrutiu lost her No. 5 singles match and remained winless on the year.
Jackson, however, made it clear that the loss would not undermine the team’s confidence in future matches – a thought shared by Rush.
“We just realized that we need to work harder,” said Rush. “And we can still have just as good of a season as we expected to have at the beginning of the season.”
Freshman Andrea Yung, playing No. 4 singles, suffered her first career defeat in a closely contested match to Delphine Troch, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4.
“(William & Mary) went in with nothing to lose, and that’s dangerous,” Yung said. “We came in prepared, but we just didn’t step up enough. It was also our first away match, and they had a lot of support from fans. It’s hard to play under those conditions.”
Yung also saw an upside to the disappointing loss, saying it was “a wake-up call” for the team and acknowledging that the Cats need to work harder.
With such a strong reputation – NU went 24-5 last season and is coming off three straight Big Ten titles – the team found the loss to William & Mary disappointing but not embarrassing.
“We never expect to lose,” Jackson said. “But sometimes a team needs something like this to stay motivated. We just have to work harder and practice harder.”
