Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Women’s Tennis: While You Were Gone-NU suffers back-to-back losses in first outdoor matches

After struggling to find a solid doubles lineup in the first half of the season, No. 2 Northwestern appeared to have finally struck a winning balance against Duke and North Carolina last week. But just as the doubles teams began to gel, the Wildcats’ singles group gave up 10 matches to cement a pair of back-to-back losses.

“Our doubles came out looking really good and we’ve found the teams for the season,” junior Maria Mosolova said. “But both of those teams came out really hard like we knew they would, and we were all disappointed with the final score.”

NU is now 13-3 on the dual season, with all of its losses coming against top-10 opponents. The Cats beat the No. 1 Tar Heels in the finals of the ITA team championships in February, pulling out four singles wins. But Wednesday the Tar Heels avenged that loss with a 5-2 win. The next day when NU faced No. 8 Duke, the defending national champions, the result was eerily similar for the Cats: two doubles wins and one singles win. Despite the disappointing results, Mosolova pulled out two singles victories as well as posting a pair of wins at the No. 1 doubles spot with senior Lauren Lui on the weekend. Freshman Linda Abu Mushrefova and sophomore Stacey Lee also captured two wins on the weekend.

“Maria and I gelled really well in doubles,” Lui said. “We only played together briefly once last year but it felt great to be playing with her. I was pleased with how we did.”

Lui and Mosolova took down two top-25 ranked doubles teams against North Carolina and Duke. Lui and junior Elena Chernyakova defeated the Tar Heels’ No. 10 ranked doubles team at the ITA championships earlier in the season, and Lui and Mosolova took down the same pair in a third-set tiebreaker Wednesday.

“Maria proved that she is not going to let anything distract her,” coach Claire Pollard said. “She is playing at a very elite level and she is incredibly focused.”

Pollard said the team was distracted by the transition from indoor play to its first outdoor matchups of the season. Thanks to the long Illinois winter, NU has only practiced outside about 10 times this season. The elements of wind and sun add a new dimension to the game, one that both North Carolina and Duke are more experienced in dealing with. Come May, the Cats will have to play outdoors in the NCAA Championship, so any outdoors experience is good experience, Pollard said.

“It should really be motivating and exciting for the team to get this experience and realize how much it’s going to take to be in outdoor shape in May,” Pollard said. “Sometimes these losses can be really important and defining for a team later in the season. This sort of struggle is going to make us stronger.”[email protected]

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Women’s Tennis: While You Were Gone-NU suffers back-to-back losses in first outdoor matches