The Big Ten season for No. 2 Northwestern started just like the Wildcats want to finish it: perfect. NU (8-1, 2-0 Big Ten) swept through conference competition over the weekend with impressive home victories against Penn State (1-5, 0-1) on Saturday and No. 25 Michigan (2-4, 0-1) on Sunday.
“We knew going into this weekend that we wanted to make a big statement and send a message to the rest of the (Big Ten) teams, and I think we did that,” junior Nazlie Ghazal said.
The weekend started off smoothly for the Cats as they cruised to a 7-0 win over Penn State, taking five matches in straight sets and surrendering one game or less in eight sets.
The Cats swept doubles, seizing control of all three matches and dominated in singles play.
At No. 1 singles, Maria Mosolova showed Penn State why she is the second-ranked singles player in the nation, winning 6-0, 6-0. At No. 2 singles, Georgia Rose gave up only one game as she won 6-1, 6-0, while at No. 4 Lauren Lui only gave up two games in her victory. At No. 5 singles, Ghazal trailed briefly in the second set but stormed back to win 6-1, 6-4.
At No. 3 singles, Murray was involved in a tight match against the Nittany Lions’ Lauren Holzberg. Murray lost the first set, 6-4 but won the second set, 7-5. Murray went on to win the match superbreaker 10-7 to give NU the dual sweep.
Saturday’s match against Penn State was like elementary math competition for the Cats, but Sunday’s match against No. 25 Michigan was more like high school algebra. Michigan brought a complete team to Evanston that would challenge NU in every way.
NU captured the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and No. 3. At No. 2, Alexis Conill and Rose defeated Michigan’s Rika Tatsuno and Whitney Taney, 8-6. The doubles team of Mosolova and Suzie Matzenauer easily defeated the Wolverine’s Denise Muresan and Lindsey Howard, 8-3.
NU started off singles competition with a loss at No. 1 singles when Michigan’s Chisako Sugiyama defeated Rose, 6-3, 6-1.
But the Cats won three straight matches to clinch the dual. Mosolova defeated Michigan’s Tania Mahtani at No. 2 singles, 6-3, 6-2. Lui defeated Rika Tatsuno, 6-2, 6-3 at No. 4, while Matzenauer defeated Michigan’s Lindsey Howard, 6-3, 6-4 at No. 6 singles.
Even though the match was already decided, there were two matches still on the court that provided the crowd with excitement.
The No. 3 singles match between Murray and the Wolverines’ Whitney Taney was a seesaw battle all the way to the end. Murray fell behind early 1-4, but fought back to even it at 5-5 and won the first set 7-5. Taney pulled out a second set victory of 6-4, which set up the superbreaker. Murray came out hot to win the match 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (10-7).
Then there was one match that Michigan’s fans particularly had their eyes on. The Michigan fans were as rowdy as if it were football season for No. 5 singles as Ghazal took on Wolverines’ Muresan.
“I knew that if the Michigan fans were there that they were going to come out screaming and hollering and it kind of fueled me to work harder,” Ghazal said.
Ghazal took the first set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (8-6), but Muresan came back to take the second set 6-3. In the superbreaker, Ghazal was unable to gain any momentum and lost, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 1-0 (10-5).
Even though NU pulled out impressive Big Ten victories this weekend, the NU coach Claire Pollard said the Cats still have respect for the teams in the Big Ten.
“The Big Ten is an improved league,” Pollard said. “Michigan is certainly better, and there are going to be a lot of good teams, and we are going to have to be ready to go like always.”
NU won’t have to be ready for Big Ten competition again until March 7 when the team takes on Wisconsin, but it can look forward to taking on North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Feb. 22.
