There most definitely was consolation for Northwestern duo Cristelle Grier and Alexis Prousis in the women’s doubles consolation tournament of the ITA National Indoor Championships, which featured seven of the top 10 ranked doubles teams in the nation.
After suffering a disappointing first round defeat Thursday to eventual champions Alice Barnes and Anne Yelsey of Stanford, ranked 6th nationally, Grier and Prousis won their next three matches en route to capturing the women’s doubles title in the consolation bracket Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.
“Because it was such a competitive field, any of the matches were going to be against really tough competition,” Grier said. “We knew we played well against Stanford. It was only a few bad points that lost it for us, so we knew we could beat anybody else in the draw.”
In the first round of the consolation bracket Friday, Grier and Prousis cruised to an 8-1 victory over Pepperdine’s Sylvia Kosakowski and Merve Asimgil.
In the consolation semifinals Saturday, the Wildcats’ duo topped No. 9 Kim Coventry and Joelle Schwenk of Kentury 8-2.
Later in the day, they narrowly defeated Pepperdine’s other doubles team of Bianca Dulgheru and Eva Dickes, ranked No. 47, 9-8(5) in the consolation finals.
“The past two years I had won the doubles tournament, but I think we did the next best thing,” Grier said. “I’m very proud of it, and I think we did a very good job this week. I think I can call it a hat trick.”
After winning her first round match in the women’s singles tournament, No. 11 Grier defeated No. 46 Megan Muth of William & Mary 6-1, 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Later Friday, No. 8 Kristi Miller of Georgia Tech defeated Grier 6-1, 6-4 to eliminate her from the tournament.
“I was pleased with how the singles went,” Grier said. “I was obviously disappointed to lose but I gave her too much of a head start to get back in it. She was a better player on that day.”
In Grier’s two previous trips to the tournament, she was eliminated in the quarterfinals and the semifinals.
Prousis followed up her first round loss in the women’s singles tournament Thursday with another loss in the first round of the consolation tournament Friday.
Singles consolation runner-up No. 12 Suzi Fodor of Cal defeated No. 50 Prousis 6-7(9), 6-3, 6-1, in her first trip to the ITA indoor championships.
The Cats now have more than two monthhs off before entering team competition in January.
“I think we are all going to try to recuperate and be fresh for January as well as to maintain the fitness level we are at in the fall and come back strong,” Grier said.
Reach Michael Schlossberg at [email protected].
