After dropping from No. 14 to No. 16 last week, Northwestern took to the road with a renewed intensity.
The Wildcats traveled to Ohio State and Penn State over the weekend and came out with convincing victories in both conference matches.
NU opened weekend play against No. 38 Penn State and took out the Nittany Lions 5-2 despite dropping both the No. 1 and No. 2 singles matchups in straight sets.
The Cats got off to an excellent start in doubles play as junior Veronica Corning and freshman Alicia Barnett secured their sixth-consecutive doubles match victory with an 8-1 win over Carmen Sandor and Devan McCluskey.
The ninth-ranked doubles pair, senior Linda Abu Mushrefova and junior Nida Hamilton, struggled in the No. 1 position, falling to Penn State’s No. 49 Petra Januskova and Chelsea Utting 8-5.
With doubles play evened up at one, the first point of the match was decided by No. 3 pair junior Belinda Niu and senior Kate Turvy. The duo suffered a close loss to Michigan last weekend and fell behind Penn State early Saturday but was able to rally back to win 8-4.
The top singles positions had a difficult time against Penn State’s top players. Turvy succumbed 6-2, 6-2 to unranked Utting despite being ranked No. 55 in the country. Similarly, Corning, who was ranked 106th, lost to No. 67 Januskova 6-4, 6-4 in the No. 1 match.
Despite the ranked Cats’ struggles, the No. 3, 4, 5 and 6 matches secured an overall victory of 5-2 with routine straight-set wins.
Big Ten play continued Sunday afternoon as the Cats traveled to Columbus, Ohio, where they handily defeated No. 62 Ohio State, 6-1.
The first win of the day went to Ohio State in the No. 3 doubles match as Turvy and Niu were unable to overcome the duo of Kelsey Becker and Grainne O’Neill, dropping the match 8-6.
The No. 1 and No. 2 matches were also hard fought, but NU came out triumphant in both. Once they secured the first point of the match, the Cats steamrolled the Buckeyes.
The only Ohio State point of the afternoon came in the No. 2 singles match between Corning and Fidan Manashirova. Despite making an apparent comeback in the second set, Corning fell to an unranked opponent for the second time in two days as Manashirova won 6-3, 7-5.
Niu was the only Wildcat to need three sets to win her match. After falling in the first set 2-6, Niu refocused and rallied back to overcome Kara Cecil, 2-6, 6-3, 10-6.
The Cats left the Buckeyes reeling from a 6-1 loss, advancing their own Big Ten record to 7-2.
