Northwestern is looking to break the quarterfinal curse that has cut short its championship dreams two seasons in a row as it enters the first rounds of the NCAA tournament at home this weekend.
After the most difficult season in their 12-year run of Big Ten championships, junior No. 13 Maria Mosolova thinks the Wildcats have an advantage this time around that they’ve never had before-an underdog mentality.
“In the past we’ve entered this tournament with everyone looking to us to win it,” Mosolova said. “This year it’s going to be different. We had some bad matches against Baylor and Texas, so people say we’re not doing well. But we’re getting our confidence back, and with no pressure on us.”
After dropping those two consecutive matches to No. 1 Baylor and No. 16 Texas in April, No. 6 NU (21-6) regrouped to finish out its Big Ten season on an upswing-taking the Big Ten Tournament title from Michigan in a clean sweep. The Cats entered the conference championships seeded second to the Wolverines, a first in program history, but decisively redeemed an early season loss to Michigan. Coach Claire Pollard is hoping that momentum carries over into NU’s matchup against Miami (Ohio) (18-6) on Friday in the regional stages of NCAA play. If NU beats unranked Miami, it will face the winner of Friday’s matchup between Illinois and Nebraska. The Cats have made it to at least the round of 16 in nine of the past 10 seasons-but this has been anything but an average season for the Cats, who have posted an unusually high six losses.
“This program has actually seen some adversity,” Pollard said. “But that’s good. We’re not taking anything for granted. You’ve got to string together some great tennis in order to be successful in the tournament setting.”
The matchup against the RedHawks will be a repeat from last season’s regional qualifying in Evanston. But for the three freshmen on the squad, this will be their first time facing Miami, as well as their first time playing under NCAA tournament pressure. The RedHawks took the Mid-American Conference Championship for the second year in a row this season and posted a flawless conference record.
If the both the Wildcats and the Fighting Illini advance, it will make for a much more familiar rematch for the freshmen. After winning a close regular season matchup, NU faced off against Illinois for the second time in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. Though the Cats edged the Illini 4-2, they dropped doubles points at both the No. 2 and No. 3 spots. With former NU players Georgia Rose and Keri Robison on its staff, Illinois has unique insight into NU’s style of play.
“We’re going into each match with the mentality that anything can happen,” senior Lauren Lui said. “This year there’s nothing easy, so we just have to treat each match like it’s the most important. But if we manage to do that, we could go a long way.”[email protected]
