Northwestern faces its first major test of the season this weekend, but you wouldn’t know it from talking to coach Claire Pollard.
“We’re going in with the same mindset,” Pollard said. “We don’t differentiate between our opponents.”
The No. 5 Wildcats go to College Station, Texas, this weekend to face No. 16 Texas A&M on Saturday and No. 14 Kentucky on Sunday.
The Cats defeated the Aggies last February and are 5-1 against Texas A&M. The defending Big XII tournament champs feature No. 47 Helga Vieira, who partners with Anna Lubinsky to form the nation’s No. 28 doubles team.
They will likely face NU’s No. 1 duo of Audra Cohen and Cristelle Grier. But facing the best is old hat for Vieira and Lubinsky, who defeated then-No. 1 Dianne Hollands and Maja Mlakar of Arizona in the fall.
“I think Audra and I will go about our business,” Grier said. “Hopefully we’ll come out with a ‘W’ on our end.”
The Cats are 6-2 against Kentucky (2-0). Kentucky opened its season on Tuesday with wins over No. 60 Marshall and Louisville. Like NU, Kentucky has three ranked singles players. But it is the only school in the country with two doubles teams ranked in the top 15.
No. 7 Aibika Kalsarieva and No. 30 Sarah Foster form the No. 6 duo, while No. 58 Kim Coventry teams with Joelle Schwenk for the No. 11 pair.
Kentucky’s formidable squad means that NU’s No. 49 sophomore Alexis Prousis will likely face a ranked opponent in her singles match for the first time this season. For Prousis, however, this will mean little come Sunday.
“When you think about rankings you get lost while you’re out there,” Prousis said. “I’m not going to worry about the number of the person I’m playing. I’m just going to go out there and play.”
Texas A&M and Kentucky both reached the sweet 16 of last year’s NCAA Championships before being knocked off by Clemson and eventual champion Stanford, respectively. Still, Pollard reiterated that the Cats are approaching this weekend like any other.
“We haven’t even talked about A&M or Kentucky once this week in practice,” Pollard said. “You can’t change your game because you’re playing a certain opponent. You have to try to impose your game on your opponent.”
Reach David Kalan at [email protected].
