Six. That’s how many consecutive matches the Wildcats need to win to bring home their first national championship. It has been an incredible season for the Cats. Entering the tournament as the No. 1 seed, Northwestern has already proved that this may finally be its year.
The team racked up a host of accomplishments that included winning its 10th straight Big Ten championship, improving its conference winning streak to 63 matches, and having four players earn All-Big Ten honors.
“We have a sense as a team of how great we are,” junior Georgia Rose said. “I have a sense that when I go out on the court, I know that five other people in singles are really going to get the job done.
“We don’t have one spot that is really going to hurt us. It is a great feeling to go into a match having that confidence.”
The Cats have been in this position before but have come back disappointed each year. In 2006, NU lost 4-3 to USC in the quarterfinals. The Cats were upset 4-0 in the round of 16 last year by UCLA.
“I have been disappointed before, and it is about time that disappointment ended,” coach Claire Pollard said.
The Cats enter the tournament ranked No. 1 for the first time in program history and are focused on finally bringing home a national championship.
“We all have been working for six months and now there is only a short period of time left,” freshman Maria Mosolova said, “so these last days we just have to concentrate and put all our effort into tennis.”
The Cats will host the first two rounds of the NCAAs. They begin their drive for a championship with a first-round match against Illinois-Chicago. NU has dominated the all-time series with the Flames, 5-0.
With a win over Illinois-Chicago, the Cats would face the winner of the Indiana-Louisville match in the second round. If NU does face the Hoosiers, the players are confident they can extend their Big Ten streak to 64.
“I don’t expect to lose a Big Ten match while I’m here,” Rose said. “It’s definitely not something I think will happen.”
“We are just too solid. I think we have too much depth this year. Even if one or two of us have a bad day, we have such a strong team that it want really affect us.”
NU has never faced the Cardinals.
If the Cats get past the first two rounds, they will be just four wins away from a historic championship. No other NU team, other than the three-time defending-champion lacrosse squad and the 1946 men’s fencing team, has ever won a national championship.
“It would be a huge to make Northwestern history. We just made history with the Big Ten titles and that is something we are proud of, but a national title will really top that,” Rose said.
Pollard could not agree more.
“I think a national championship would be huge,” she said. “We are just trying to keep up with lacrosse.”
