Less than a week after Northwestern’s hopes of raising the championship trophy came to a close, three Wildcats closed out their seasons by earning some individual hardware.
Sophomore Maria Mosolova earned individual All-American honors for the second-consecutive year with her run to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Tournament. The doubles pair of senior Georgia Rose and junior Lauren Lui also secured All-American status by reaching the quarterfinals of the doubles tournament.
Mosolova, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, was upset in straight sets by Georgia freshman Chelsey Gullickson on Saturday.
Gullickson, the 2009 ITA National Rookie of the Year, jumped out early and quickly won the first set. In the second set, Mosolova grabbed a 4-1 lead. But Gullickson stormed back to win five consecutive games and close out her stunning upset over Mosolova, 6-1, 6-4.
Mosolova was also stretched to three sets in her second- and third-round matchups, which coach Claire Pollard said she believes hurt Mosolova when she got to the quarterfinals.
“She went into that last match pretty beat up,” Pollard said. “She really worked hard in the first round, and then she was lucky to survive the second round – she basically won on pure competitiveness. Then the third round was against one of the toughest outs in the tournament. I think how hard she worked to win her first three matches contributed to the quarterfinal result.”
It is the second-consecutive year Mosolova advanced to the quarterfinal round. She started tournament play with a three-set victory over UCLA’s Andrea Remynse on May 20.
Rose and junior Samantha Murray, who also qualified for the individual tournament draw, both had their individual tournament runs end in straight sets in the tournament’s opening round.
The next day, No. 24 Rose and Lui began their run to the doubles quarterfinals with a 7-6, 6-4 upset of Fresno State’s No. 15 Tinesta Rowe and Melanie Gloria.
Rose and Lui continued their run with a straight-set win over Kentucky’s Carolina Escomilla and Caroline Lilley, who they also beat in NU’s second-round matchup with Kentucky on May 9.
In the quarterfinals, the NU duo fell in three sets to Stanford’s Hilary Barte and Lindsay Burdette, who would later lose in the NCAA championship match.
Despite the loss, Rose said she felt the duo peaked at the right time after an up-and-down regular season.
“We didn’t have the greatest year as a doubles team,” said Rose of her and Lui as a pair. “But I think we were playing the best doubles we had been playing all year (at NCAAs). We just never gave up, and we never stopped believing. We definitely gave ourselves a great chance to be in the semifinals.”
Mosolova and senior Keri Robison were not as successful, falling to Miami’s Michaela Kissell and Laura Vallverdu in their first-round matchup.
For Rose, the doubles tournament represented one last chance to win the national championship that had eluded her throughout her career.
Although falling short of that goal was disappointing, she said she felt the Cats worked as hard as possible to win it all.
“It was definitely sad,” she said. “My goal since I’ve been at Northwestern has been to win a national title. Obviously, that doubles match was the last chance we would have of getting it. But we did everything we could this year. I think we ended on a pretty good note, getting All-American honors.”
