Sometimes it’s a lot easier to watch than it is to play.
“It’s a different kind of nervousness,” Prousis said. “You’re watching and you have no control over what’s going on.”
Last year junior Alexis Prousis clinched the Big Ten title with her victory in a tie break at No. 3 singles. But this year Prousis was the first to finish in singles and had to rely on her teammates to pull through for the victory.
“I’d rather be watching than playing in a situation like that I think,” she said. “But then again it was a pretty good feeling to win it for the team.”
For the second year in a row, the Big Ten Championship came down to NU and Michigan. And just like last year NU made sure its dominance over the Big Ten continued, winning the conference title for the eighth year in a row.
“Winning is always awesome,” Prousis said. “You can’t really explain it. We did what we hoped to do, win another Big Ten Title, so it feels really good.”
Last year Michigan tore though Iowa and Indiana for a chance to upset the No. 1 team in the conference.
But Sunday’s match ended with similar results as last year, and NU’s 4-2 victory over No. 31 Michigan left the Wolverines in second place for the second consecutive time.
“We didn’t really care who we played,” Prousis said. “We went there to win another title, so whoever we played it wouldn’t have mattered.”
The road to Sunday’s match couldn’t have been any smoother for the Cats. With a 4-0 victory over Penn State on Friday, NU glided into the semifinals against No. 47 Purdue.
But the win over Michigan didn’t come as easy as the rest of the weekend. Paved by two sweeps, the untarnished road to Sunday’s match led to a roadblock as the doubles point went in the Wolverines’ favor.
No. 14 senior Cristelle Grier and Prousis beat Kara Delicata and Debra Steifler 8-5 in doubles, but Michigan took the No. 2 and 3 doubles spots.
“We hadn’t lost a doubles point in any of the Big Ten finals I’ve played in, so it made me a little nervous,” Prousis said.
But coach Claire Pollard wasn’t too concerned with the early deficit, and said she was thrilled with the way the team played in the final match despite the doubles point loss.
In singles the Cats looked more like a No. 1 seeded team, dropping just one match to Chisako Sugiyama at No. 5.
With the score 3-2, No. 43 freshman Georgia Rose beat Delicata 6-4, 6-1, and made it 4-2 to clinch the eighth Big Ten Title for NU.
In addition to the clincher, Rose’s victory at the No. 1 spot also broke Grier’s consecutive singles record at NU. The victory was Rose’s 29 th singles win of the season.
“She’s had a great year all around,” Pollard said. “She’s someone we definitely rely on and she had a great match.”
Even with an eighth title now under their belts, the team said it has plenty of tennis left. On Wednesday they will find out where each player stands for the NCAAs.
“We’re definitely not satisfied,” Pollard said. “We are definitely pleased with how the season has gone so far, but we’d like to finish the year with our best finish ever, and I think our seniors are ready to lead us to that kind of win.”
Reach Diane Yamazaki at [email protected].
