Following No. 1 Northwestern’s domination of Penn State in doubles, the Wildcats’ three seniors put down their rackets in favor of flowers and balloons.
After the trio led the Cats to a clean sweep in singles, they set down their rackets again, this time for the Big Ten championship trophy.
NU (22-1, 10-0 Big Ten) picked up a pair of 7-0 wins against Ohio State (14-9, 7-3) and Penn State (5-17, 2-8) to wrap up its 11th consecutive Big Ten title and complete its fifth straight undefeated conference season.
Coach Claire Pollard isn’t sure the easy wins are helping the Cats as they prepare for the stretch run.
“I don’t think it helps our confidence a whole lot, actually,” Pollard said. “Because we’re just better than these teams. Winning this easily is sort of giving us a false sense of security, and, going into the NCAAs, you get to the round of 16, you need to be ready to go.”
The Cats struggled at the start of their match against the Buckeyes on Saturday, battling to earn the doubles point. No. 39 Maria Mosolova and Keri Robison picked up a quick 8-1 win in the second doubles spot, but NU had to fight for victories in the other two spots.
No. 19 Georgia Rose and Lauren Lui finally won, 9-8, on a tiebreaker in the first spot after trailing for the majority of their match. Samantha Murray and Elena Chernyakova battled their way to an 8-6 win in third doubles.
Despite picking up the win, Pollard saw room for improvement as the Cats adjusted to playing outdoors Saturday.
“We let the conditions dictate our play a little bit,” Pollard said. “We need to just play outside, get used to the conditions and make the adjustments. It’s slower out here, and we need to just be out here and do it.”
The Cats took complete control of the match once singles play began, winning all six singles spots without dropping a set. After missing the final two matches of the Cats’ road trip last weekend with flu-like symptoms, No. 47 Murray started things off smoothly for NU with a 6-1, 6-2 win in the third singles slot.
Even after the time off, Murray didn’t feel rusty against the Buckeyes.
“It was good to start playing again,” Murray said. “I haven’t been practicing for about a week, so it was good to finally get to play again. It was fun to get out there and hit a few balls.”
Robison and No. 117 Lui followed with wins of their own to clinch the NU victory. Mosolova, who regained the No. 1 singles ranking this week, also picked up a dominating win in the first slot.
With its Big Ten win streak at 73, NU continued its domination indoors with its shutout of Penn State at Combe Tennis Center on Sunday.
The Cats swept the doubles matches with more ease than Saturday, with Mosolova and Robison grabbing an 8-0 victory.
The Cats took all six singles matches in straight sets, headed by the three seniors. Rose took a 6-2, 6-4 win in the first slot, Robison picked up a 6-0, 6-0 win in the fifth spot, and Nazlie Ghazal grabbed a 6-1, 6-0 win in the fourth.
Even on senior day, the trio was looking to send a message to the rest of the Big Ten.
“We know we wanted to make a strong statement at the end of the year,” said Ghazal, who finished her Big Ten career with only one loss. “We knew we were going to be sad because it was Senior Day, but we wanted to make sure we got the win. Big Ten Champions 11 years in a row – it’s really exciting. “
