Cristelle Grier last lost in singles play 19 matches ago against Duke’s Amanda Johnson.
Grier and the Northwestern women’s tennis team wanted Sweet 16 revenge against Duke on Thursday after a 5-2 loss to the Blue Devils on Feb. 21.
But they couldn’t pull through.
After moving past their first two NCAA tournament opponents relatively easily, the Wildcats were stopped short of their first Elite Eight appearance under coach Claire Pollard when they lost 4-1 to the Blue Devils (22-4). The defeat ended NU’s tournament run and its season.
“To be honest, I think they were a better team today, ” Jamie Peisel said. “I don’t think we did anything wrong, but we got outplayed. They were solid throughout.
“We were planning on them being emotionally weak, and we thought we’d be the stronger team mentally. But they weren’t. They were a power team and we weren’t able to beat that.”
The 10th-seeded Cats (25-5) gained momentum in doubles when Grier and Jessica Rush won. Peisel and Alexis Prousis then came back from a 4-0 deficit to win 8-6, giving the Cats the doubles point.
“After doubles I think we were definitely thinking that we could turn around the matches this time,” Peisel said. “We were all really excited after we won the point, and we thought we’d come out with a different result.”
But for the first time this season, the Cats did not win any singles matches, even though they have Grier and Peisel, who rode 19- and 16-game winning streaks into Thursday’s match.
Grier said doubles gave the Cats a “good ride,” into singles, but they still tried to concentrate on the importance of the singles matches.
Unfortunately, she said, the team couldn’t pull through.
No. 3 Grier hasn’t faced many top-10 players this season, so she came out a little slow against No. 8 Amanda Johnson.
“Johnson came out firing on all wings, which took me a little bit by surprise,” Grier said. “Then she didn’t make any mistakes, so I never got back in it.”
After Grier fell at first singles, Connie Chiang also lost. Rush was leading 6-2, 5-4, but Andrea Yung and Alexis Prousis both lost to end the match.
“We looked so awful for the first 20 minutes of doubles, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to get annihilated,'” Pollard said. “But we were able to come back and pull through. We fought really hard in singles, but they were just pretty relentless with us.”
After a few easier matches in early rounds, Pollard said, it was harder for the team to raise to a new level so quickly.
“We’re in a totally different environment here,” Pollard said. “But this is a great team, and they need to leave knowing that.”
Senior Ruth Barnes said she wasn’t pleased with the result in her final college match, but the season wasn’t a complete disappointment.
“Everyone competed very well, and we didn’t leave anything on the court,” Barnes said. “But in the end, only one team of seniors can end its season on a win. It’s disappointing that we didn’t, because I think we could have gone farther. But how many seniors can leave saying they won four Big Ten championships and had three Sweet 16 appearances? I think that’s something to be proud of.”
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