Ahead one set and leading 5-1 in the second, senior Keri Robison held the Wildcats’ fate in her hands.
Leading Kentucky 3-1, Northwestern needed one more victory to advance to the third round of the NCAA tournament.
Robison quickly jumped out to a 40-15 lead in the seventh game of the set. Serving for the game, she slammed a scorching ace down the center of the court, leaving her opponent stunned.
With that serve, Robison propelled the Cats to a 4-1 victory and sent them to Texas.
“I was a little bit nervous,” she said. “I knew that everybody else was having some close matches out there so I felt a little bit of pressure to close it out and I just wanted to take it one point at a time.”
Robison’s victory capped off a weekend in which NU went 8-1 against Miami (Ohio) and Kentucky at the Vandy Christie Tennis Center. Next, the Cats travel to College Station, Texas, to face Fresno State in the round of 16.
While NU won six singles matches on the weekend, Robison was the only NU player to win both of her matches. On Friday against Miami, Robison and juniors Samantha Murray and Lauren Lui won their matches. The next day against Kentucky, it was Robison, sophomore Maria Mosolova and senior Georgia Rose who helped NU advance.
In doubles, only the pair of Lui and Rose were victorious on both days.
Despite the Cats’ inconsistency, the victories put the team’s overall strength on display.
“The depth is critical,” coach Claire Pollard said. “But I think what’s more important is that we have no holes in our lineup. For us, the great thing we have is that on any given day we have six players and three doubles teams that can win, and we’re going to need every one of those.”
The Cats’ only loss of the weekend came at No. 4 singles on Saturday when Lui fell to Kentucky’s Lauren Meier, 6-3, 6-3.
“Lauren just got beat by someone playing too well today, ” Pollard said. “And that’s going happen, so we need to have good chances at every spot.”
With one trip to the round of 16 and two trips to the NCAA quarterfinals in her career, no one knows more about the importance of depth to a playoff team than senior Nazlie Ghazal.
“Obviously as the tournament goes on the teams are getting better and better,” Ghazal said. “I think where we are really strong is that we can win at any spot. We never know where our points are coming from, but we know that we can count on everyone to do the best they can, and everyone has potential to win at their spot.”
Along with their depth, Ghazal said she trusts that the team’s postseason experience will be a crucial factor in its success.
“Definitely having a couple years under our belt helps a lot,” she said. “The past couple years we went in a little tight, a little nervous and we kind of felt a little pressure. This year we know that we’ve earned what we’ve got and we’re just going to make it count this time and leave everything out on the court.”
