Northwestern improved to 15-4 on the season and 7-0 in the Big Ten after the shutting down Minnesota 7-0 on Saturday and Iowa 5-2 on Sunday.
On their first day of play, the ninth-ranked Wildcats dominated the Minnesota Golden Gophers, their sixth conference opponent for the season.
“It was really great,” senior Cristelle Grier said. “We try not to take any Big Ten opponent lightly, they all come out swinging, so it was a good win.”
The team grabbed all three doubles matches early on, starting with freshman Nazlie Ghazal and junior Alexis Prousis’ 8-0 victory at No. 3 doubles.
Grier and senior Feriel Esseghir knocked out the second win for the day with an 8-5 victory at No. 1, guaranteeing the doubles point for NU.
Sophomore Alexis Conill and freshman Georgia Rose made it three with their 8-5 doubles win at No. 2 and set the Cats up for a possible sweep against the Golden Gophers.
In singles, Ghazal was the first to gain an NU victory, shutting down Minnesota’s Jane Anderson 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 5 spot.
At No. 2, Rose dominated the Golden Gophers’ Ida Malmberg in a quick match ending 6-0, 6-0. The win was Rose’s 22nd consecutive singles victory, leaving her at just six matches away from tying Grier’s record of 28 consecutive singles wins.
Clinching the victory for the Cats, was Grier, ranked eighth in the country, who nabbed a 6-0, 6-1 victory at No. 1 singles over Minnesota’s Nischela Reddy, making it 4-0.
Senior Jamie Peisel won 6-3, 6-2 at No. 3 singles, and Esseghir topped Minnesota’s Mariana Spilca 6-4, 6-4 at No. 4, putting the team up 6-0.
Conill’s three-set battle ending 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8) gave the Cats a solid 7-0 finish and marked the team’s fourteenth victory for the season.
“It was really great for Alexis (Conill),” Grier said. “She hasn’t been able to play that much and she had a great three-set win.”
On Sunday, the match against the Hawkeyes depended less on the teams’ caliber and more on their abilities to withstand the outdoor elements.
“We played the match outside,” Grier said, “And under harsh conditions. It was really windy so it was a matter of which team could deal with that better, and we were lucky to come out on top.”
Wind or no wind the Cat’s string of doubles wins carried over from the day before. Esseghir and Rose snagged the first doubles victory with an 8-4 win at the No. 2 spot against Iowa’s Hillary Mintz and Kayla Berry. The Ghazal/Peisel doubles team at No. 3 beat out Mili Veselinovic and Krissy Dowlin with an 8-4 win.
The No. 10 doubles team of Prousis and Grier finished up the wins with an 8-3 victory at No. 1 against Iowa’s Meg Racette and Jacqueline Lee.
In singles against the Hawkeyes, Rose snagged her 23rd consecutive singles win at the No. 1 spot, taking her match 6-4, 6-3.
Eighth-ranked Grier defeated Mintz 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 singles, extending her winning streak to eight.
The only NU losses came at No. 3 and 4 where No. 24 Prousis lost to Veselinovic 6-1, 6-2 and Peisel at No. 4 fell 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8) against Lee.
“It’s been a long week,” Grier said. “We’ve been on the road for a while now, so we were really pleased to come away with two solid wins from this weekend.”
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