Before the match against Northwestern, Minnesota women’s tennis coach Tyler Thomson had one thing to tell his players: “A victory will happen if you believe it will happen.”
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, he was right.
“The reason that most teams in the Big Ten don’t have success against Northwestern is that they don’t believe they can win,” he said.
In what marked the end of a 29-game Big Ten winning streak, the No. 17 Northwestern women’s tennis team lost 4-3 to No. 31 Minnesota at the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis on Sunday.
The last time the Cats lost to a conference opponent was almost three years ago when they fell 5-2 to Ohio State on April 8, 2000. NU coach Claire Pollard said the loss came as a disappointment, but not a shock.
“We knew that we were going to lose at some point in the Big Ten,” Pollard said. “You can’t go on forever.”
In contrast to the Cats’ disappointment, the Gophers (13-5, 6-1 Big Ten) came away from the match with renewed confidence. Thomson said beating NU was a great achievement for a team that finished 1-9 in the conference last year.
“For anybody to beat Northwestern is a real confidence boost,” Thomson said. “They’ve handed everyone their lunch for the last four years.”
In what is becoming a familiar story in the team’s losses, NU (13-5, 6-1) dropped the doubles point, with only the No. 1 team of Cristelle Grier and Jessica Rush contributing a win for the Cats.
The singles matches were evenly divided at three apiece, making the doubles point the margin for victory for Minnesota. Pollard said lack of experience was a main factor in her team’s loss.
“I think our inexperience showed up on Sunday, ” Pollard said. “The truth of the matter is we’ve got an incredibly young team out there.”
Contributing wins in singles play for the Cats were the top-three positions of Grier, Rush and Jamie Peisel. Grier and Rush won their matches in straight sets, and Peisel, who is undefeated in Big Ten play, fought back after losing the first set to win 5-7, 6-2, 6-3. The bottom three positions of Andrea Yung, Ruth Barnes and Kristi Roemer all lost.
“The lessons of this match are individual for each player,” Pollard said. “Somehow you have to tie that into a lesson for the whole team.”
Pollard said although she was concerned about her team’s ability to “get up” for important matches, she did not think the Cats underestimated Minnesota. Grier agreed with Pollard and added that the loss may help the Cats in the long run.
“In some ways the loss may help us,” Grier said. “We’ll be determined not to lose going into the Big Ten tournament.”
On Friday, the Cats swept Iowa (4-12, 2-5) 7-0 in Iowa City. Each NU player won in straight sets.
For Pollard, the Big Ten winning streak was enjoyable, but was bound to come to an end. Now, she said, her team needs to focus on performing well the rest of the season.
“I’m really glad that we had that run,” Pollard said “But now we know that if we’re going to win the Big Ten this year we’re going to have to get better.”
