After four years on the Northwestern women’s tennis team, senior Ruth Barnes remembers the match against Notre Dame during her sophomore year as one of the most exciting in her career.
The Wildcats won 4-3 in that 2002 match-up between the two Midwestern powers.
“Notre Dame has always been one of our biggest rivals,” Barnes said. “I know they think about this match all year, and we do too.
“I always remember the match from two years ago. The intensity of it is something we have to go out and match again this game.”
The proximity and success of No. 24 Notre Dame (10-8, 3-0 Big East) makes them a rival of the Cats (15-4, 5-1 Big Ten), but last year NU swept the Fighting Irish 7-0.
“Obviously, we would love to have the same result again this year,” head coach Claire Pollard said. “But last year’s score was not indicative of the close rivalry we have with them.”
The match against Notre Dame is the Cats’ last regular season match against a top-25 team, and the team’s last non-conference competition.
The best match up most likely will be between No. 3 Christelle Grier of NU — who has won her last 10 matches with relative ease — and No. 11 Alicia Salas of Notre Dame. The Cats last faced Salas at the ITA Midwest Championships in October. Salas defeated both Andrea Yung and Jessica Rush before Grier beat her, 6-2, 6-2, in the finals.
In the top doubles match, No. 2 Grier and Rush will play No. 57 twins Catrina and Christian Thompson.
Pollard isn’t brushing off the Irish, whose only highly ranked players come at the top of their lineup.
“Notre Dame is a solid team with no real glaring holes or weaknesses in its lineup,” the coach said. “They’ve struggled a bit lately, and I won’t really know why until we see them. But we’re not going to take them lightly either way.
“One thing I’ve learned during coaching is that any team can lose if they don’t show up to play,” Pollard said. “We want to be ready.”
The Irish are coming off of two losses, to then-No. 43 William and Mary and then-No. 14 Texas, while the Cats coming off back-to-back blowout wins over Iowa and Minnesota, are looking to duplicate last year’s sweep.
“Last year they were so excited to beat us that they just didn’t do well and we shocked them,” Jamie Piesel said. “We’d like to have the same results this year, but we know they’re ready and we can’t expect anything.
“Still, they’re No. 1 on our sweep list right now.”
