Maria Mosolova, the economics major, and Maria Mosolova, the No. 13 singles tennis player, are not that dissimilar. When the Russian transplant steps onto the court she approaches every shot with the sort of calculated risk analysis that can make even easy wins a thorough, if lengthy, affair.
“She has no risk taking ability and she is always conservative and safe on things,” coach Claire Pollard said. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness sweetheart you’ve got to be able to take a risk.’ But then again, that play is what makes her so darn hard to beat. That’s what makes her great.”
Moslova’s patented control on the court has been both her winning ticket and her downfall over the past three seasons with the Wildcats. After entering last year’s NCAA tournament with the No. 1 seed, Mosolova was stymied for the second year in a row in the quarterfinals. Pollard said Mosolova was the victim of her own game, as she drew out her first three rounds to three-set wins, leaving her exhausted in her loss to Georgia’s No. 8 Chelsey Gullickson. Mosolova has been working on playing more aggressively at the net and making her serve more lethal this season, but she still opts for outlasting rather than outwitting her opponents. If the junior manages to break through and take the NCAA title this season, she will do it with the same meticulousness she applies to her economics problem sets.
“Risk taking, that’s just not the way I like to play,” Mosolova said. “I’m not a risk taker; not on the court and not in real life. I am very much the same sort of student and the same sort of player. I freak out and I work hard, but I don’t leave anything up to chance.”
Mosolova stepped away from her first big gamble more than six years ago back home in Moscow. Despite winning the under-16 and under-18 Russian title and earning a No. 41 International Tennis Federation juniors world ranking, Mosolova decided to go to college rather than try her luck on the professional scene.
It’s a decision the junior has never looked back on. Mosolova, who has always been serious about academics, decided she would pick a school that appealed to both her athletics and her academics. Several Google searches later, Mosolova began to seriously look at Northwestern.
“There’s a high chance that you’re not going to make it (professionally) and I didn’t want to be in my 20s without an education, just sitting on a couch and saying I missed my chance,” Mosolova said. “So I e-mailed coach Pollard.”
At first Pollard didn’t respond to Mosolova’s inquiry, but in true Mosolova fashion, she persisted. Eventually, Pollard took notice and flew out to Hungary to watch one of Mosolova’s juniors matches. Pollard’s first impression of Mosolova as she took down a precocious younger player with her steady and precise shots has not changed much. Mosolova is much the same technician now that she was when Pollard first saw her.
“I knew she was going to be solid,” Pollard said. “I was more concerned with how she was going to buy into the team concept personality wise. She seemed very pleasant, but you just never know.”
Mosolova’s intensity proved a good fit for the nationally acclaimed tennis program as she clinched the No. 1 singles spot for NU. She even earned a nickname, ‘Princess Mosolova,’ for her well coordinated practice outfits and tendency to grunt during matches.
“In the beginning she was very much like a princess because she would always wear her cute little outfits and tank tops to practice and she would refuse to wear t-shirts,” senior Lauren Lui said. “By Winter Quarter she was wearing T-shirts like the rest of us, but she’s still pretty girly so we still call her that.”
Mosolova was anything but docile on the courts, never falling from the top-10 singles rankings and notching ITA All-American honors in her first season with the Cats. Her sophomore campaign was even more successful, as she added ITA Scholar-Athlete honors and finished the season No. 2 in the nation.
“Maria’s such a great player,” said sophomore Elena Chernyakova, who played with Mosolova on the youth doubles circuit in Russia and is now paired with her again. “She can get angry on the court, but you know she’s going to come through in the end. I look up to her because of the way she made the transition to tennis here.”
After two successful years, this season has presented an onslaught of new challenges for Mosolova and the Cats. NU is struggling for the first time in 12 years with Pollard at the helm as it contends with youth and fatigue from a tough road schedule. The rankings would suggest Mosolova is on a similar downturn, as the junior has posted a 19-6 singles record and has not been ranked inside the top 10 since March.
But Pollard said the rankings are misleading and Mosolova is actually playing the best tennis she’s ever played, thanks to extra training and improved aggression. When NU avenged its regular season loss to Michigan to take the the Big Ten Tournament title, Mosolova also bounced back to redeem her loss to the Wolverine’s No. 20 Denise Muresan.
“Sometimes while that game is growing, you’re going to take steps back in order to go forward, and we just hope that Maria will peak at the right time,” Pollard said of Mosolova’s shot at the NCAA singles title. “If she wins, great. If not, oh well. At the end of the day, you just want your best player to have the program’s best work ethic. She’s got that.”
