Women’s Tennis
The Wildcats and the Fighting Irish don’t get along.
“No one likes them here at this school,” NU sophomore Alexis Prousis said. “When you say Notre Dame, everybody is like, ‘I hope you kill them.’ Who likes Notre Dame? No one.”
On Saturday Prousis was at the center of the rivalry, with the doubles point in the regional championship and a trip to Athens, Ga., at stake.
After NU split the other two doubles matches, Prousis and partner Kristi Roemer willed themselves to a 9-8 (7-4) victory against Notre Dame’s Brook Buck and Lauren Connelly. After facing a 5-3 deficit and failing to close the match with an 8-7 lead, Prousis and Roemer pulled out a tiebreaker as a capacity crowd with mixed loyalties looked on in anxious silence.
The match clinched the doubles point for No. 6 Northwestern (26-2) en route to a 4-0 victory against No. 23 Notre Dame (15-10), and it earned the Cats a trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA championships.
The victory came from an unlikely source in Prousis and Roemer, who lost a tiebreaker to Buck and Connelly when they met exactly one month earlier.
“If you look over the history of the season, two has been our problem spot,” coach Claire Pollard said. “They’ve won, but they have struggled and struggled. We know we’re great at one, we know we’re great at three, but the question is how good are we at two?
“For Kristi Roemer, a senior playing in her first meaningful regional final, to step up there and play as huge as she did I think was huge for us, and I don’t think Notre Dame really thought they could win four singles.”
On Friday, in NU’s opening-round 4-0 victory over Valparaiso, Roemer and Prousis struggled to hold a 4-3 lead before the match was abandoned. On Saturday, against stiffer competition, the tandem looked like a different team.
“It was a little nerve wracking being down 5-3,” said Roemer. “I think we just believed and hung in there and had really good attitudes and really good communication, and we just fought through it”
In singles the Irish looked deflated as the Cats quickly took control. No. 4 Audra Cohen, Valerie Vladea and Prousis all won in straight sets.
Cohen also had a score to settle in her 6-0, 6-3 win against Catrina Thompson. Thompson defeated Cohen last month.
“When I played her last time it was more of a mental battle for myself than really getting beat on the court,” said Cohen. “If I am able to focus through a match and make sure that my head is completely there, I can beat a lot of really great players.”
Cohen’s victory came on the heels of a loss in doubles earlier in the day. Cohen and partner Cristelle Grier, ranked No. 2 in the nation, lost 8-3 in their rematch with Catrina and Christian Thompson. The twin sisters, currently ranked No. 6, lost to Cohen and Grier last month.
The Thompsons got help as Grier woke up Saturday with a sudden case of elbow bursitis. Grier had trouble both in doubles and in singles, where she split two sets with Buck before the match was abandoned.
“Grier couldn’t hit backhand today, ” said Pollard. “It’s hard to beat the No. 6 (doubles) team in the country when you can’t hit a backhand … Grier wasn’t able to give us any wins today, but what I thought she did was she just fought so hard. This kid’s tough and she was in a lot of pain today. She never let on and she went out there, and I have no doubt that she would have won that third set today.”
The Cats now head to Athens to play Clemson on Thursday in the round of 16. NU has never advanced past the round of 16, a trend that won’t suffice this time.
“We’re just at a different level this year,” said Pollard. “I think in the past we’ve been really happy to make the Sweet 16. That’s where we’ve been seeded to make, and this year we’re seeded to make the quarters, which we won’t be satisfied with … I think all we can do now is look to the next team. If it’s Clemson, I’m sure they’re great.
“But so are we.”
Reach David Kalan at [email protected].
