Women’s Tennis

No. 11 Northwestern split a pair of matches this weekend, defeating Baylor 5-2 at home Friday before falling to Georgia Tech by the same score two days later.

In both matches, the Wildcats (5-4) won the doubles point, but after four singles players had a victory in their contest against the Bears (5-7), freshman Clarissa Hand was the only victorious singles player in Atlanta versus the Yellow Jackets (3-3).

No. 59 Hand defeated No. 70 Livia Kraus of Baylor 7-5, 6-1 and No. 26 Kenya Jones of Georgia Tech 7-6, 6-4, continuing her dominant stretch of play. Hand was also undefeated in her doubles matches this weekend, paired with senior Lee Or, and the duo conceded just six games in two doubles matches this weekend.

But the other singles players struggled after successful showings on Friday. Or and sophomore Caroline Pozo both split their singles matches this weekend, beating the Bears but losing to the Yellow Jackets. Pozo clinched the win for the Cats on Friday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Paula Baranano, but she fell 2-6, 2-6 on Sunday against Valeriya Deminova.

Against Georgia Tech, senior Rheeya Doshi and No. 72 Julie Byrne, a junior, each lost potential swing matches that could have turned around the result for NU. Doshi had the closest loss, falling in three sets to Victoria Flores. With the loss, the Cats fell for first time all season to an unranked opponent.

NU has two more matches this weekend – this time both at home. The Cats face Iowa (7-0) on Friday before a matchup against Pepperdine (3-2) on Sunday.

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Twitter: @2021_charlie