Women’s Tennis

Throughout the weekend, Northwestern faced moments where it appeared its record would continue to plummet.

Instead, the No. 53 Wildcats improved their record to 3-5 overall with two tight wins over Illinois (4-5) and Georgia Tech (6-5).

After struggling through a difficult early schedule, NU ended a five-match losing streak with two wins that came right down to the wire. Friday, the Cats kicked off Big Ten play at Illinois, pulling out a 4-3 win that came down to the last court. NU returned home Sunday to take on Georgia Tech and won in another nail-biter, 4-3.

On both days, senior Alicia Barnett and junior Jillian Rooney were the last singles players remaining, leaving both matches in their hands. On Friday, Rooney rolled over her opponent 6-1 in the third set while Barnett fought hard to earn her match in a third set tiebreaker, giving the Cats overall victory in 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).

On Sunday, Barnett was edged out in the third set to knot the match with the Yellow Jackets at three apiece, but Rooney stepped up to take her No. 5 singles match 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, to secure the Cats’ victory.

Rooney said her intensity gave her an edge over her opponents with the match on the line.

“I’ve been going into every match trying to fight for every point, and stay in the moment for every single point”, Rooney said. “I told myself to continue to be aggressive, and hopefully it’ll pay off, and it did.”

Friday’s conference opener started out rough for the Cats as they dropped the doubles point and both the No. 4 singles and No. 6 singles fell behind 3-2 with two courts remaining, putting the pressure on Barnett and Rooney to take their third sets for the first conference win. They thrived, giving NU its first win in just over a month.

The Cats kept up the suspense Sunday, as the doubles point came down to a tiebreaker at No. 2 doubles between sophomores Alex Chatt and Maddie Lipp and Georgia Tech’s Rasheeda McAdoo and Johnnise Renaud. However, Chatt and Lipp came alive in the tiebreak, dominating 7-2 to give NU a head start.

The Cats slumped as singles began, dropping four of the six first-sets in singles. However, NU was sparked by Chatt’s win at No. 4 singles and sophomore Erin Larner’s upset at No. 1 singles over No. 37 Renaud to get the Cats up 3-1. Larner dropped 3 match points before finally closing out her match 6-4, 6-4.

Larner said her serve was especially on point Sunday, giving her an extra boost to get the win late in the match.

“That was a big key for my match because they have big serves, so I needed to focus on holding my serves,” Larner said.

Needing one more win to grab their second match of the weekend, it once again came down to Rooney. After dropping a deciding match against then-No. 5 Vanderbilt this season, Rooney found herself at 5-5 in another do-or-die match. She seized the opportunity this time, winning a marathon rally with the set at 6-5 to earn the only match point she needed.

Before this weekend, coach Claire Pollard had discussed the difference between the team’s strong effort on the courts and the team’s overall record, but she explained that the record’s beginning to reflect her team’s level of play.

“We needed it,” Pollard said. “When the girls have had a chance to let it sink in, they’ll be really happy and proud of the effort from both nights.”

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