Northwestern faced a daunting challenge over the weekend: back-to-back road dual meets against top-10 teams.
The No. 12 Wildcats began with a flourish, as junior Kate Turvy prevailed in a dramatic three-set match to lift NU to a 4-3 win over No. 8 North Carolina on Friday. The momentum couldn’t carry over as NU stumbled against No. 3 Duke, winning just one doubles match in a decisive 5-0 loss.
Coach Claire Pollard said the team should be pleased overall, especially considering the grueling schedule.
“It’s hard to win on the road in those places,” Pollard said. “I didn’t want to play them without a day in between. But I said to the players, ‘If we don’t believe we can win, we shouldn’t waste Northwestern’s money going out there.'”
Junior Linda Abu Mushrefova said that the team was optimistic despite its mixed results on Tobacco Road.
“We came away with a lot of confidence,” Mushrefova said. “We feel like we belong with the best teams.”
NU continued to struggle in doubles against UNC. The sixth-ranked duo in the nation, Mushrefova and sophomore Nida Hamilton, dropped its second consecutive match in the form of an 8-1 blowout at the hands of Shinann Featherston and Lauren McHale. The Tar Heels won all three doubles matches, which forced the Cats to regroup quickly, Mushrefova said.
“We knew we had a chance at every spot in singles,” she said. “After losing that doubles point, we knew we needed to refocus for singles.”
After sophomore Veronica Corning lost to Featherston in straight sets, Mushrefova and sophomore Belinda Niu dominated their matches to even the score at 2-2. Less than a week after her gritty three-set victory gave NU a berth in the ITA National Indoor Team Championships, Hamilton rallied to edge Laura Slater 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Junior Brittany Wowchuk, 86th-ranked in singles, missed an opportunity to give NU the victory, falling 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 against Featherston. With the score tied at three, 26th-ranked Turvy secured the win with her upset victory over 16th-ranked McHale at No. 1 singles. After splitting the first two sets, Turvey pulled out the third for a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory.
Pollard said although Turvy’s win secured NU’s victory, it took a team effort to put her in position to clinch the match.
“It was great to see (Turvy) step up,” Pollard said. “But the credit really goes to the bottom of the lineup because they really gave us a chance.”
Pollard suggested earlier last week that she would consider changing her doubles arrangements. This was the case Saturday at Duke, as her pairings consisted of Mushrefova with Corning, Hamilton with Niu and Turvy with Wowchuk. While Mushrefova and Corning earned a much-needed 9-7 win, the other pairings fell short, causing NU to lose the doubles point for the third consecutive match.
Pollard said in doubles, the team needs to work on “everything.”
“We haven’t played well and didn’t execute on Saturday, ” Pollard said. “We’ll get there, but we had a lot of challenges. We weren’t in sync heading into the season (because of injuries).”
The Cats appeared as though they would mount a comeback early in singles play. Corning, Mushrefova, Hamilton and Niu all won the first set in their matches, but the Cats failed to win another set, unraveling against a Blue Devils squad that boasts five nationally ranked players. Aside from Niu, who left the match unfinished due to the already decided outcome, every NU player went on to lose.
Mushrefova refused to blame the loss on tired legs. She said the team competed well even though that may not have been reflected in the lopsided results.
“I don’t think fatigue was really the problem,” Mushrefova said. “We played some really tough matches against a good team and came away with knowing what we need to improve.”
NU took a day off Monday before beginning practice in preparation for the ITA National Indoor Team Championships in Charlottesville, Va. The Cats, who won the tournament in 2009 and 2010, begin their difficult draw against the home team, No. 9 Virginia, on Friday. Last year, Virginia routed NU 4-0, which Pollard said would serve as motivation for her players.
“We played our most awful match of last year against Virginia,” she said. “We were disgusted with ourselves afterwards. I’m not a big ‘revenge’ kind of coach, but you don’t need to say a lot in these situations. (The players) remember distinctly how disappointed we were after last year’s match.”
