By Brian ReganThe Daily Northwestern
The good news for Northwestern is that while the team was eliminated last Friday, the Wildcats still have the possibilty to bring home NCAA hardware with today’s start of the individual tournaments.
While Friday’s disappointing result lingers, the Cats remain optimistic about their chances of capturing an NCAA title.
“I wouldn’t say we have nothing to lose,” coach Claire Pollard said. “This is another tournament and we are going to represent Northwestern and play hard and do whatever we can to go as far as possible.”
Three Cats qualified for the individual tournaments. Sophomore Georgia Rose is NU’s top-seeded singles player. She will also compete in the doubles bracket with senior Alexis Prousis. Big Ten Freshman of the Year Samantha Murray recieved an at-large bid into the singles draw.
Although the individual bracket was decided long before the Cats fell to UCLA, the loss gives some on the team an extra boost to play harder.
“We got beat convincingly by a great team that won in the semis and are in the finals of the team competition,” Rose said. “It motivates me to play even better so we can end on a successful note.”
Not that Rose hasn’t found success this season.
The All-American sophomore was named Big Ten Player of the Year and is the 13th-ranked singles player in the country – and that is just in singles. Rose and Prousis make up the nation’s ninth-ranked doubles tandem and Prousis is going for an NCAA doubles title repeat, albeit with a different partner.
“We’ve been as good as ever,” Prousis said. “We really complement each other and we’ll see what happens.”
As far as Prousis’ fame goes, she hasn’t found anything different about being a defending national champion.
“I’m kind of oblivious to it,” she said. “I just go out and play and let the racket talk for itself. If people know that I won in doubles last year, that’s fine, but if they don’t, it’s not really a big deal.”
The Prousis-Rose combination was the only doubles team that won against UCLA, adding another top-20 victory to their record, the most impressive one being the upset of the top-ranked team of William & Mary’s Megan Moulton-Levy and Katarina Zoricic.
The Cats’ doubles team will now have to focus on their first round matchup against Georgia Tech’s 26th-ranked team of Alison Silverio and Amanda Craddock on Thursday.
The Cats lost to the Yellow Jackets 4-3 on Feb. 12, but the two doubles duos did not meet.
In the singles bracket, Murray faces off against California’s Zsuzsanna Fodor, who lost to Rose when the teams played on March 24.
Rose, who was recently named one of two ITA Players to Watch, will face Mississippi’s Ilona Somers, whom she has never played before.
Regardless of whom her opponents are, Rose said she will not be pleased unless she is crowned champion at the end.
“I think it’s clear what the goal is,” Rose said, “and I would be kind of disappointed with anything else.”
Reach Brian Regan at [email protected].
