After losing their first match of the season, the No. 5 Wildcats did what they could with their remaining opportunities. Unable to advance, Northwestern still beat two solid teams in its consolation matches at the USTA/ITA Women’s Tennis Team Indoor Championship.
Northwestern dominated No. 24 New Mexico, 7-0, on Friday and then defeated No. 10 Tulane, 5-2, on Saturday in Madison, Wis.
The first victory wasn’t perfect, as NU’s No. 1 doubles team of Audra Cohen and Cristelle Grier lost for the second day in a row, 8-3, to the No. 4 duo of Maja Kovacek and Iva Gersic.
But the Cats took the doubles point as both the teams of Alexis Prousis and Kristi Roemer, and Jamie Peisel and Valerie Vladea pulled off solid wins.
NU won all six singles matches in straight sets. In the top spot, No. 1 Cohen bounced back from NU’s loss to Georgia by making short work of No. 24 Kovacek 6-0, 6-1. No. 4 Grier did likewise, taking out No. 64 Gersic 6-4, 6-2.
Prousis held off Michelle Heidbrink 7-6(4), 6-4, while Vladea, Peisel and freshman Alexis Conill all secured comfortable victories.
Grier and Cohen found the winning touch Saturday as they edged Tulane’s No. 49 duo of sisters Maria and Darya Ivanov, 9-8.
But NU dropped the doubles point as its other two doubles teams lost.
“It was a scary match,” coach Claire Pollard said. “And we just hung in there and concentrated on taking care of ourselves and hoping that doing the right thing would pay off.”
NU controlled singles. In the first spot, Cohen defeated Tulane’s Maria Ivanov 7-6, 6-4. At No. 2 singles, Grier out-battled Jenny Kuehn 7-5, 7-5.
The Cats’ only singles loss came when Prousis fell to Smekodub 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Peisel went 3-0 and was the only NU player with more than one appearance to finish the weekend undefeated in singles.
The Cats improved their overall record to 5-1. And while they didn’t advance further in the tournament, Pollard said her team knows that there is more on the horizon.
“Kentucky is in the final, and we beat them pretty handily last week,” Pollard said. “We left the tournament believing that we are one of the best teams in the country.”
Reach David Kalan at [email protected].
