April 30, 2000
EVANSTON, Ill. - In a mentally and physically grueling match, the Northwestern women's tennis team defeated Minnesota,4-3, to claim the 2000 Big Ten Conference Championship. The Wildcats (22-4) rallied with four singles wins after dropping the doubles point to the Gophers, and claimed their second straight Big Ten title.
The match was clinched at No. 6 singles as Jennifer Lutgert (Evergreen, Colo./Univ. of Nebraska Indp. Study) pulled through in the third-set tiebreaker, winning the final two sets of the match after dropping the first to Tammy Wang. Lutgert defeated Wang, 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(1) for the victory to claim the Wildcats' fourth Big Ten title.
Minnesota opened the match by winning the doubles point to take the 1-0 lead. In singles, the Wildcats quickly downed their opponents at Nos. 3 through 5, winning in straight sets to take a 3-1 lead. Colleen Cheng (Hillsborough, Calif./Burlingame) defeated Kim Simonsen, 6-3, 6-3 at No. 3. Lia Jackson (Glendale, Wis./Nicolet) dominated Amy Thomas, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 4, and Marine Piriou (Ste. Pol-de-Leon, France/Ecole De Notre Dame) shut down Michaela Havelkova, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 5. The Gophers gained victories at Nos. 1 and 2 to even the score at 3-3. Lutgert completed the final with the three-set victory and ended the five-hour-and-30-minute championship match. En route to the title, Northwestern defeated Indiana (4-0) in the quarterfinals and intrastate rival Illinois (4-1) in Saturday's semifinals.
MATCH RESULTS
30 April 2000
Northwestern 4, Minnesota 3
SINGLES
| No. 1 | Nora Sauska (M) def. Katherine Nasser (NU), 6-3, 6-2 |
| No. 2 | Sandra Olsen (M) def. Shannon Duffy (NU), 7-6(4), 7-5 |
| No. 3 | Colleen Cheng (NU) def. Kim Simonsen (M), 6-3, 6-3 |
| No. 4 | Lia Jackson (NU) def. Amy Thomas (M), 6-1, 6-1 |
| No. 5 | Marine Piriou (NU) def. Michaela Havelkova (M), 6-1, 6-1 |
| No. 6 | Jennifer Lutgert (NU) def. Tammy Wang (M), 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(1) |
DOUBLES
| No. 1 | Olsen/Havelkova (M) def. Nasser/Cheng (NU), 9-8(5) |
| No. 2 | Jackson/Piriou (NU) def. Simonsen/Wang (M), 8-4 |
| No. 3 | Sauska/Jenny Howard (M) def. Duffy/Leigh Weinraub (NU), 8-6 |