After Northwestern won on Senior Day to solidify an undefeated home record last season, coach Claire Pollard called the doubles point the team’s “unsung hero.”
During last year’s duel season, the Wildcats routinely started matches up 1-0. They won the doubles point in 21 of 27 matches, including in nine of the last 10 matches.
As a new year dawns upon NU, losing three upper-echelon doubles players hasn’t forced Pollard’s squad to lose any of its juice. Just a year ago, Christina Hand and Justine Leong — both of whom have since graduated — made a run to the semifinals of the ITA Midwest Regional Championships.
This year, the ’Cats found similar success in the regionals, though it came from new faces. In a mirror image of last year, graduate student Britany Lau — who led the team with 19 doubles wins during the duel season — and freshman Mika Dagan Fruchtman paired up to reach the semifinals of this year’s ITA Midwest Regional Championships.
Up until the semifinals, the doubles matches were played in a single pro set style, meaning the first team to win eight games was victorious. If the match tied at 7-7, a tiebreak would begin. In the semifinals and finals, the matches consisted of a best-of-three format with a third-set match tiebreak.
Lau and Dagan Fruchtman received a bye in the first round, then nearly lost immediately. In the first round, the two narrowly escaped Ohio State’s Alessia Cau and Teah Chavez 8-7(5).
The two then had to face Illinois’ Alice Xu and Megan Heuser, who are ranked as the nation’s No. 9 doubles team. Lau and Dagan Fruchtman dismantled the esteemed pairing with an 8-3 win, placing them in the quarterfinals.
Another 8-3 win ensued in the quarterfinals. Then, despite saving two match points and ultimately winning the second set, the duo’s run was halted at the semifinals with a tight 6-4, 5-7, (10-5) loss.
Senior Kiley Rabjohns and sophomore Katya Shepherd Johnson also flourished during doubles play, and the duo reached the quarterfinals. Their first round was a dominant 8-0 win and carried the momentum into the Round of 32, where they upset Notre Dame’s seeded duo of Maria Olivia Castedo and Rylie Hanford 8-7(5).
In the next round, the NU duo found another tall task ahead of them with the fourth-seeded and top-75 nationally-ranked Wisconsin pairing of Taylor Cataldi and Tianna Rangan. Rabjohns and Shepherd Johnson etched out an 8-7(4) win.
In the quarterfinals, they fell to Michigan’s Julia Fliegner and Reese Miller, the same duo that defeated Lau and Dagan Fruchtman in the semifinals, 8-3.
Each of the ’Cats’ duos reached at least the second round of the doubles draw. Senior Sydney Pratt and freshman Erica Jessel dominated their first-round match 8-1 but were knocked out of the tournament with an 8-7(4) loss in the second round.
In singles, NU didn’t find quite as much success. Two players, Lau and Jessel, reached the Round of 16, while others bowed out at various stages.
Lau registered a 6-4, 6-3 win in the opening round and subsequently defeated Wisconsin’s Alina Mukhortova — the Badgers’ No. 2 in singles last year — 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Lau then fell to Michigan’s Lily Jones, the No. 45 player in the nation, 6-4, 6-2.
Jessel started her singles campaign with a bang, knocking off seeded player Nibi Ghosh of Notre Dame from a set down, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(5), in the opening round. She followed up with a 6-3, 6-1 win in round two but met her match against the tournament’s top seed and the nation’s No. 12 singles player Fliegner with a 6-2, 6-2 defeat.
All ten ’Cats were granted spots in the singles draw, though four — Autumn Rabjohns, Jennifer Riester, Shepherd Johnson and Maia Loureiro — were placed in the qualifying draw.
Autumn Rabjohns, Riester and Loureiro all advanced to the main draw without dropping a set, while Shepherd Johnson was the lone NU player who did not participate in the singles main draw.
Riester didn’t last long, as she fell 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of the main draw. Dagan Fruchtman also lost in the first round with a difficult draw against Michigan’s Piper Charney, the No. 55 player in the country who ultimately reached the tournament’s semifinals. The Israeli took a set but lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-0.
The remainder of the ’Cats lost in the second round of action.
Kiley Rabjohns won in three sets in the first round, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 but lost 6-3, 6-1 to Ohio State’s Sydni Ratliff, the No. 50 player in the country. Feldman also faced a difficult second round after her 6-4, 6-4 first round win. She drew the nation’s No. 23 player, Ohio State’s Luciana Perry in round two and lost 6-3, 6-2.
NU will return to the hard courts for the Green & White Championship hosted by Michigan State from Oct. 25-27.
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— Women’s Tennis: New faces shine as Northwestern opens season with Notre Dame Invite
— Women’s Tennis: Israeli star Mika Dagan Fruchtman readies for four years at Northwestern
— Women’s Tennis: Northwestern falls in nail-biter NCAA tournament first round matchup
