Northwestern dropped matches against Auburn, Oklahoma State and Virginia as it co-hosted the 2026 ITA Division I Women’s National Team Indoor Championships with Illinois on February 6-10.
During their first match against No.1-seed Auburn, the Wildcats (5-4, 0-0 Big Ten) showed promise in doubles. At the No. 2 spot, freshman Margot Phanthala and sophomore Erica Jessel were leading 3-2 when their opponents retired due to injury.
At the No. 1 spot, sophomore Mika Dagan Fruchtman and junior Neena Feldman were neck and neck with their opponents to start the match, but lost four straight games at 2-2 to lose 6-2. Moments later, Auburn claimed the doubles point when freshman Marelie Raath and sophomore Maia Loureiro were defeated 6-2.
Singles proved to be a struggle for the ’Cats as junior Autumn Rabjohns, who had previously only lost one match this season, was the lone Wildcat to win a set. Her match, at the No. 3 spot, went unfinished at one set apiece, 7-5, 3-6.
The first singles match to finish was at the No. 2 spot, as Feldman fell 6-2, 6-2. At No. 6, Dagan Fruchtman lost shortly after 6-1, 6-3.
The No. 1 spot clinched the match for the Tigers as Phanthala was defeated 6-3, 6-4. Despite the defeat, coach Claire Pollard said she found the match to be valuable.
“I thought the first match of this weekend was really productive,” Pollard said.
In their next match against Oklahoma State, NU faced similar struggles. Dagan Fruchtman and Feldman again started out evenly matched with their opponents at the No. 1 spot. But at 3-3, the duo lost three games in a row to lose 6-3. Raath and Loureiro also lost their match at the No. 3 spot, 6-1.
Dagan Fruchtman posted a dominant performance and was up 6-0, 1-0 when her opponent retired. The match at the No. 5 spot was the next to finish as Raath fell 6-2, 6-1. At No. 1, Phanthala went down 2-3 to start off the match and lost the next nine games in a row. She won one game at the end, but was unable to come back from the deficit. The match at No. 4 was the clincher for the Cowgirls, as Loureiro fell 6-3, 6-1.
Against Virginia, similar struggles persisted. The Cavaliers quickly claimed the doubles point with a score of 6-0 at the No. 1 spot and 6-1 at No. 2. At No. 3, the match went unfinished at 4-4.
In singles, Phanthala claimed her first match of the weekend, defeating the ITA’s 34th-ranked player Vivian Yang. At the No. 2 spot, Rabjohns fell 6-3, 6-2, and at No. 5, Raath fell 6-3, 6-3.
Pollard said the team could take away some important lessons from the tournament.
“They, first and foremost, need to see, one, how tough it is,” Pollard said. “Two, that they’re very good. And three, that with more work and digging a little deeper and going a little deeper, we’re going to have a fantastic season.”
Next weekend, the ’Cats will take on Fordham in a home match Feb. 15.
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