In its first home weekend of the season, Northwestern dominated its two matches Saturday against Butler and Eastern Michigan. The hosts did not lose a single match — in fact, NU swept every set. 

The Wildcats (3-0, 0-0 Big Ten) defeated the Bulldogs (0-2, 0-0 Big East) and the Eagles (0-1, 0-0 MAC) in a pair of 7-0 victories. 

Against Butler, NU secured the doubles point with wins from their No. 1 and No. 3 spots. Junior Justine Leong and graduate student Elisa Van Meeteren won the top spot 6-3, while graduate student Britany Lau and freshman Neena Feldman secured a 6-1 victory.

The ’Cats carried that momentum into the singles matches, where senior Maria Shusharina defeated Butler’s Natalie Boesing 6-4, 6-3. Leong, fresh off her doubles victory, then topped the Bulldogs’ Delaney Schurhamer 6-3, 6-1.

NU sent Butler packing after graduate student Christina Hand, junior Sydney Pratt, Lau and sophomore Jennifer Riester won each of their games. 

After a short break, the ’Cats returned to the court to face the Eagles in what proved a near-carbon copy of the morning’s romp. At the start, NU won both No. 1 and No. 2 doubles, backed by powerful performances from the Leong/Van Meeteren duo (a 6-2 victory) and a Hand/Feldman pairing (a 6-3 win).

Shusharina and Leong each won their singles matches against EMU in straight sets, as did Hand, Lau, Pratt and Feldman.

The ’Cats will look to carry their positive results into next week’s match in College Station, Texas, where they will face Texas A&M on Jan. 27. 

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Twitter: @HenryFrieman

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