No. 3 Audra Cohen lost on her first attempt to tie teammate Cristelle Grier’s year-old Northwestern record of 40 wins in a year, falling 6-2, 6-2 to No. 37 Catrina Thompson.
Despite Cohen’s loss, No. 3 Northwestern (18-2, 7-0 Big Ten) dominated in singles Nos. 2 through 6, beating No. 26 Notre Dame (12-8), 5-2.
Shortly after the end of Cohen’s match, No. 16 Grier clinched the match for the Cats.
After easily winning the first set against Brook Buck, Grier seemed to be cruising to a win in the second set, leading 5-2. Then, on two straight match points, Grier called Buck’s returned ball out, only to be overturned by the judge both times.
“I was really annoyed at (the second one),” Grier said. “He was overruling a far line call. I could have shown him the ball mark.”
Buck used this momentum to even the match and force a second-set tiebreak, which Grier emphatically won 7-5 on a forehand winner down the line.
“That set she’d been a lot more aggressive and me a lot more passive,” she said. “I wanted to end it and I knew I could.”
The Cats took the doubles point for the 12th match in a row, winning two out of three matches. The only team to lose was No. 36 Alexis Prousis and Kristi Roemer, who fell to Buck and Lauren Connelly. It was the first time since Feb. 27 NU failed to sweep the doubles point.
In the top slot, No. 1 Grier and Cohen played the No. 4 Thompson twins, Catrina and Christian.
After holding serve for the first nine games, the Thompsons broke in a game where Catrina committed two double faults. Grier and Cohen won the last two games, closing out the match 8-4.
The Thompsons became increasingly discouraged as the match went on, arguing with each other between points and returning to the court at different times after breaks.
“They’re renowned for bickering with each other,” Grier said. “We knew that if we could get on top, they would start having a go at each other.”
After easily defeating a string of Big Ten opponents that did not present much of a challenge, coach Claire Pollard said her team expected a test from the Fighting Irish.
“We have a great deal of respect for them,” she said. “We all knew we needed to raise our level today and we did a great job of that.”
Cohen looked stiff during the match and had trouble responding to Thompson’s groundstrokes and drop shots.
She said her back bothered her and her legs were numb from the cold.
“I didn’t even know what I was thinking the whole time,” Cohen said. “I lost myself today.”
With the Big Ten tournament two weeks away, NU plays three conference foes in the next nine days, including a homestand against No. 50 Purdue (7-10, 4-2) on Saturday and No. 54 Illinois (10-8, 4-2) on Sunday. Despite Cohen’s injury, Pollard said she was not thinking about resting her before postseason play.
“She can’t hurt it anymore,” she said. “It’s not going to go away before the end of the year. It’s something she’s going to have to learn to deal with.”
Reach David Morrison at [email protected]
