There’s only one thing missing from the Claire Pollard’s resume: a NCAA team championship.
The coach, who is entering her 13th year at the helm of the Northwestern women’s tennis program, is hoping to finally hoist that elusive NCAA trophy this season. The team has not gotten off to the most ideal start, losing three matches to ranked opponents and failing to capture their third consecutive ITA National Indoor Team Championship trophy. The No. 18 Wildcats (5-5, 1-0 Big Ten) have won 12 consecutive Big Ten tournament crowns and finished in the top-10 nationally for seven consecutive seasons, yet the team is still searching for the ultimate prize.
“It’s certainly a goal of our program,” Pollard said. “But it’s just too far off. Right now we are focusing on getting better every day.”
NU returns six players from last year’s team and welcomes three freshmen to the program. However, the Cats are still a young team with only three upperclassmen. Maria Mosolova, at the No. 1 singles position, will once again lead the Cats, but she will have a new partner at the No. 2 doubles spot in freshman Belinda Niu. The pair is 7-2 in the early season, which Pollard sees as a good sign for the rest of the year.
Niu said she is excited to be paired up with Mosolova and has already learned a lot from her in the little time they have spent together on the court.
“It’s really fun,” Niu said. “She has helped me become a better doubles player because she makes me feel so comfortable on the court.”
Mosolova is a three-time All-American and has reached the Round of 16 at the NCAA Championships all three seasons. She won her first seven matches of the year and is currently ranked 29th by the ITA in singles.
Stacey Lee is another singles player who found success early in her career. The junior posted a remarkable 20-2 freshman campaign, generally playing at the No. 6 spot, and followed that up with an impressive 26-11 record as a sophomore. Overall Lee is 18-1 in Big Ten matches on her career.
Sophomore Kate Turvy has played at both the No. 3 and No. 4 singles spots for the Cats. Turvy had a successful freshman season, compiling a 27-16 overall record, including an impressive 7-3 finish in Big Ten matches. She has already jumped out to a 5-3 record this season.
“The way we started off last season, we had a lot of matches that were pretty easy to get through,” Turvy said. “This year we have already competed against quality teams ahead of indoors. Playing those tougher teams has allowed us to improve.”
In dual play the team has already faced some stiff competition this season, facing then-No. 26 Vanderbilt, No. 16 Georgia Tech and No. 6 Duke. The Cats lost to all three ranked opponents, but Pollard said that she has seen the team improve and learn from those close defeats.
The team’s next task was to defend their 2009 and 2010 ITA National Indoor Team Championship trophies. The Cats swept through their qualifying matches in January, beating Harvard 5-0 and Nebraska 7-0 in Evanston.
The actual tournament was held in Charlottesville, Va., this season and NU opened up on Feb. 18 against No. 5 California in the Round of 16. The Cats used the doubles point and victories in singles from Niu and Lee to easily advance past the Bears 4-1. The lone loss came when sophomore Brittany Wowchuk was forced to retire from her singles match after injuring her hand in the second set.
The team then faced another tough challenge in No. 4 North Carolina. When the Tar Heels and Cats played in the ITA Tournament last season, NU won 4-2 to capture its second-consecutive tournament title. However, this season was a different story as the Cats fell to the Tar Heels 4-3. NU battled to capture the doubles point after losing the first match, but lost four of the six singles matches with Hamilton and Lee going down hardest, winning only eight games between the two of them.
“We’re a very young team,” Pollard said. “We need to get some experience playing at this level.”
