Women’s Tennis

Following a brief respite from match play, Northwestern returned home this weekend looking to halt a three-match skid.

But the No. 23 Wildcats (5-4) got off to a slow start and were overwhelmed 5-2 on Friday by a previously undefeated Baylor (6-1) team, before bouncing back Sunday to dominate Big Ten rival Illinois (3-6 Big Ten) in a 6-1 rout.

Despite eventually falling to Baylor, NU began the weekend on a brief high note. During doubles play, NU grabbed the first match at No. 2, with a 6-3 win from the sophomore duo of Rheeya Doshi and Lee Or.

Both of the remaining doubles matches moved into tiebreaks, with the junior pairing of Maddie Lipp and Alex Chatt finally pulling out a 7-6 (7-5) win. Chatt ended the match with a decisive cross-court overhand shot.

The success at doubles gave NU an early advantage.

“Having depth in doubles or singles is really key,” junior Erin Larner said. “Knowing that you can find wins at spots every day is definitely beneficial.”

However, the Cats immediately struggled at singles against Baylor’s powerful attack. NU dropped the first set in four of the six matches.

The Bears were led by No. 9 Blair Shankle and her undefeated teammate Rhiann Newborn. The two both won their respective matches over Larner and Lipp.

“(Rhiann) is really tricky and really smart,” Lipp said. “Every (Baylor) girl on every court is going to make you hit a lot of balls, so if you’re going to win your match you really have to earn it.”

Forced to play from behind, the Cats never found a rhythm. Despite scoring the decisive winner in doubles play, Chatt was overwhelmed in her match at No. 4 singles and fell to the Bears’ Theresa Van Zyl 7-5, 6-4 as Baylor clinched the match.

“I thought Baylor exposed a little lack of toughness … and I think they out-hustled us,” coach Claire Pollard said. “I was glad to get (those issues) exposed in February so that we can work on them and identify them.”

NU didn’t have to wait long to bounce back. The team fired on all cylinders against in-state rival Illinois on Sunday, whom it had beat in each of the teams’ last 16 meetings.

The Cats jumped out to a 1-0 lead behind 6-2 wins from the pairings of Chatt and Lipp, and Larner and senior Brooke Rischbieth.

NU entered singles play with its foot firmly on the gas. The Cats flipped the script from the Baylor match and were able to pick up a first set win in five of the six singles matches.

Larner bounced back from her loss Friday to grab the match-winning point for the Cats against the Fighting Illini’s Louise Kwong. Doshi and Or also tacked on wins to bring the final tally to 6-1.

“Louise is a tricky player to figure out,” Larner said. “I kept having to try and raise my level throughout because she kept coming back and wasn’t going away.”

The victory snapped NU’s losing streak and gave the team a 1-0 start in Big Ten play.

“Every match is important and wins are getting harder to come by,” Pollard said. “We need to continue to do things better in order to give ourselves opportunities and chances to win good matches.”

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Twitter: @ZachKoons