No. 39 Northwestern split its opening pair of Big Ten matches, losing decisively to No. 17 Wisconsin before grinding out a 4-3 victory over No. 60 Minnesota.
On Friday, the Wildcats (8-6, 1-1 Big Ten) traveled to face Wisconsin (10-1, 3-0 Big Ten) for the first time since the Big Ten controversially overturned the Badgers’ 4-3 win last April due to an illegal lineup configuration.
Playing with a chip on its shoulder, Wisconsin stormed to a 4-0 victory.
In the doubles point, the Badgers took NU to the bakery, winning 6-1 over the No. 1 pairing of senior Sydney Pratt and freshman Erica Jessel and 6-0 over the No. 2 pairing of graduate student Britany Lau and freshman Mika Dagan Fruchtman.
The demolition job continued into singles play. Wisconsin’s Maria Sholokhova — the fifth-ranked player in the nation, whose demotion to the No. 2 spot in last season’s match prompted the Big Ten’s overturn — dispatched Jessel at No. 1, 6-3, 6-2.
Lau lost 6-1, 6-4 at No. 3, and Dagan Fruchtman’s 6-2, 6-4 defeat at No. 2 consigned the ’Cats to defeat on the day.
NU claimed just one set, courtesy of sophomore Neena Feldman, who won her first set 6-1 at No. 6 and remained undefeated in singles on the season with her match left unfinished early in the third set. At No. 4, Pratt lost a first set for the first time all season before that contest was suspended midway through the second set.
Following the loss, the ’Cats headed to Minneapolis for a Sunday showdown with Minnesota (8-8, 0-3 Big Ten).
Coach Claire Pollard responded to the doubles shellacking her team took against Wisconsin by switching all three of her pairings. The freshman duo of Jessel and Dagan Fruchtman played at No. 1, Pratt and Feldman reignited their successful partnership from last season — which saw them finish with a 7-2 record together — at No. 2 and Lau teamed up with senior Kiley Rabjohns at No. 3.
The move proved to be a masterstroke as NU romped to victory in the doubles point. Pratt and Feldman won 6-1, and Lau and Rabjohns clinched the point minutes later with a 6-2 triumph. Jessel and Dagan Fruchtman led 5-3 and were two points from victory when the No. 3 team clinched.
Singles play followed a familiar pattern for the ’Cats as Pratt at No. 4 and Feldman at No. 6 each jumped out to early leads and took their first sets, while Jessel at No. 1 and Dagan Fruchtman at No. 2 went down a set.
After Rabjohns lost her first set 6-4 at No. 5, it was up to Lau at No. 3 to claim the crucial third first set for NU that would put it on track for victory. With her opponent, Minnesota’s Anali Kocevar, serving for the set at 5-3, Lau broke back.
The 6th-year graduate student then went on to save six set points — two serving at 4-5, 30-40, another two serving at 5-6, 30-40 and a final pair down 6-4 in the tiebreak — to claim a gritty first set win, 8-6 in the tiebreak.
On each of the five courts surrounding Lau, the player that won the first set went on to win the second. Dagan Fruchtman and Jessel sank to their seventh and fourth consecutive singles defeats, respectively, and Rabjohns also fell in straight sets.
Down 3-1, NU hastily leveled the score after Feldman won 6-4, 6-2 and Pratt won 6-1, 6-4. Both maintained their unblemished singles records — Pratt is 9-0 and Feldman is 8-0.
At the time of Feldman’s victory, Lau and Kocevar were deadlocked at 3-3 in the second set. Both teams gathered on a neighboring court to watch the remainder of the pivotal match unfold.
Kocevar cut out many of the errors that had cost her in crucial moments in the first set, using aggressive baseline play to claim the second set 6-4 and break Lau’s serve in the first game of the third set.
However, from 2-0 down in the final set, Lau dug deep. After holding for 1-2, Lau recovered from a 40-15 hole in Kocevar’s service game and broke with a marathon defense-to-offense rally at deuce.
With Lau serving at 3-3, 30-15, Kocevar charged the net and sent a two-handed backhand crosscourt volley angling away from Lau’s reach. Yet, just as Lau stretched to get a racquet on the ball, Kocevar screamed in celebration — while Lau didn’t get the ball back, the umpire awarded her the point due to the Gopher’s hindrance.
From that moment on, Lau lost just two points. She upped her aggression to break at 4-3, and then professionally served out the match, closing it with an overhead winner at 5-3, 40-15.
Lau added Sunday’s heroics to a season full of clutch moments, including a clinching win over Georgia Tech and a recovery from a set and a double break down against Kansas that lit up NU’s improbable comeback trail.
Pollard’s squad returns to Combe Tennis Center next weekend, looking to build upon its momentum against Nebraska and Iowa.
Email: elikronenberg2027@u.northwestern.edu
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