On Friday, No. 1 Northwestern is scheduled to play No. 16 Fresno State in a round of 16 matchup at the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships in College Station, Texas.
As NU prepares for a run at an NCAA title, there may be another opponent in its way, one that doesn’t show up on the schedule – history.
Regardless of the Cats success this season, past results indicate Fresno State and California have a better shot at a national title than NU.
No Big Ten team has ever won an NCAA team tennis title. Every team champion in NCAA history has come from a warm-weather climate, including 18 from the state of California.
Teams from warmer climates are able to play outdoors year-round, unlike NU, which spends most of its season playing inside the Combe Tennis Center. NU played only one regular season home match outdoors. In order to prepare for temperatures expected to be in the upper 80s this weekend, the Cats have concentrated on their fitness.
“There’s an awful big adjustment your body goes through,” coach Claire Pollard said. “It takes five days to physiologically acclimatize to that. We’ll only get two. So we’ve got to hope our bodies handle that, that we’re fit enough.”
NU increased the amount of running it is doing this year and practiced outside whenever possible.
Besides the increased temperature, the Cats will also need to adjust to the slower style of play outdoors.
Senior Keri Robison, who transferred from Florida to NU after her freshman year, has seen the advantages of warm-weather schools, but she doesn’t think the weather will affect the outcome.
“At Florida, it was nice,” Robison said. “They could play outside almost all year, and it’s a different game outside. But I honestly don’t think that’s going to be the difference this year between us winning and losing. Hopefully, it’s just going to come down to forehands and backhands.”
After falling short in the quarterfinals to Cal last season, NU’s players said they feel the team is better prepared for a run at the title this year.
The Cats enter the round of 16 on a 19-game winning streak. Among those wins was a 4-2 victory over Fresno State in March.
Heading into NCAAs, the Cats are also drawing confidence from their victory at the Indoor Team Championships in February. NU was the first champion from the Big Ten in the tournament’s 22-year history.
On their way to the crown, the Cats beat four of the 16 teams left in the NCAA tournament on four consecutive days, giving the team confidence in its ability to play at an elite level for an extended period of time.
“A lot of teams are capable of knocking off one top-10 team, but not sustain it two, three, four times,” Pollard said. “If they can vividly remember what they did to win indoors, hopefully we can draw on that to help them get through it.”
There is another vivid memory that has been stuck in the NU players’ minds: last season’s quarterfinal loss. After experiencing the pain of falling short, the Cats plan to do everything in their power to prevent it from happening this year.
“We’ve all been there and lost earlier than we wanted to,” senior Georgia Rose said. “We all know that feeling and we are definitely not going to let that happen again.”
