Big Ten bullies are back
NU cruises past Minnesota, Iowa
By Sarah Bailey
The Daily Northwestern
The Northwestern women’s tennis team already had clinched a win over Iowa when Jessica Rush found herself trailing in the second set of her No. 2 singles match. Rush had lost the first set, 6-1, and easily could have rolled over and joined the team celebration.
But coach Claire Pollard wasn’t about to let that happen.
“Between every one of Jessica’s sets, I kept telling her ‘fight, fight,’ and she did,” Pollard said. “The whole team competed very well.”
Rush came back to win the second set and a tiebreaker to finish off the match. The Wildcats might have looked vulnerable — just as Rush did early — entering the weekend after falling to Illinois on Apr. 4 but two dominating wins showed that the Cats aren’t ready to hand over the Big Ten title just yet.
Iowa (11-6, 4-3 Big Ten) entered the weekend tied for first in the Big Ten, but lost to Wisconsin on Saturday before falling to NU. After two wins this weekend, the Cats are tied with Indiana for second in the conference, only half a game behind Illinois.
Although the Cats (15-4, 5-1) beat the No. 32 Hawkeyes 6-1, most of the matches were closer than the scores suggested. All three doubles matches started off tight, but NU held on in all of them to earn the match’s first point.
Second-ranked Christelle Grier got NU on the board quickly in her No. 1 singles match, defeating No. 94 Meg Racette 6-1, 6-0. The win was Grier’s tenth straight and came nearly 25 minutes before the next Cats player, Connie Chiang, closed out her opponent.
Alexis Prousis clinched the match for the Cats, winning 6-4, 6-4 and putting the team up 4-0. Even though the match was technically over, the final three matches proved to be the day’s most exciting.
Jamie Piesel lost her first set 4-6, but came back to win the second set 6-2. Piesel finally broke away to win an intense tiebreaker 11-9 and came out with the win, her ninth straight.
“Jamie tactically had to make some changes in her game,” Pollard said. “We did that after the first set, and after that, she was set for the rest of the match.”
Andrea Yung was the only NU player to lose this weekend. She eventually fell 6-4, 6-4 after a long, back-and-forth match.
That left No. 55 Rush the last NU player on the court.
“I never really gained momentum,” Rush said. “(Hillary Mintz) played a great first set, and it was close the whole time. I just had to stand on the court and focus on my shot and get as many opportunities as possible.”
The game against the Hawkeyes came a day after the Cats handily beat Minnesota, 7-0. Minnesota finished first in the Big Ten in 2003 — taking the honor from the Cats — but the team has struggled this year.
The Cats dominated the match, which lasted only two hours and 30 minutes. After a clean sweep in doubles, Andrea Yung and Ruth Barnes breezed through the No. 5 and 6 singles matches, each winning 6-0, 6-0. Their teammates followed close behind, and closed out the match decisively.
“Minnesota was a tough match to play,” Pollard said. “They have a couple walk-ons who came to help the team out because of some issues earlier this year. It was just really hard because they came down from being so good last year.”
While Minnesota has fallen from its perch at the top of the conference, Iowa provided the Cats with an opportunity to knock off one of the Big Ten’s top teams — and NU took advantage.
“Claire told us before the match that we needed to fight today, ” Alexis Prousis said. “We went and we did just that. We got on top of them right away and made them believe that they could not beat us.”
