Feb. 19, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill.--Northwestern's seventh-ranked women's tennis team (7-1) heads to North Carolina this weekend to square off against two top-10 opponents, No. 10 Duke at noon (CT) Saturday in Durham, N.C., followed by No. 9 North Carolina at noon Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C.
This past weekend the 'Cats tamed another two ranked opponents, defeating No. 37 South Alabama 6-1 on Saturday and No. 11 Harvard 5-2 on Sunday.
Last week's Big Ten Athlete of the Week Cristelle Grier (Surrey, England/Putney) led the charge for the Wildcats, winning all four of her matches in singles and doubles. Grier, ranked fourth nationally, extended her victory streak in singles matches to eight with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Harvard's No. 25 Courtney Bregman.
Jessica Rush (Dallas, Texas/The Hockaday School), who is tied with Grier for the team lead in victories (18), had a strong showing as well in beating Harvard's Susanna Lingman 6-4, 6-0. Ruth Barnes (Cambridge, England/Hills Road Sixth Form College) also was impressive throughout the weekend, defeating the Jaguars' Ana Rupic 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 and the Crimson's Ashley Hyotte 6-3, 6-2.
Duke routed No. 36 Indiana 6-1 over the weekend to improve its record to 4-1. The Blue Devils are led by fifth-ranked senior Amanda Johnson, among four other ranked singles players. Johnson, who recently won her 100th-career match, teams with No. 89 Tory Zawacki to form the fifth-ranked doubles team.
"Duke has clearly been a top program over the years," said head coach Claire Pollard. "It will be a close match for our teams. I hope the battles our team has had (so far this season) will give us an edge."
No. 34 Kate Mozjis of North Carolina (7-1) went 4-0 for the weekend, earning her Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week honors. Mozjis helped lead the Tar Heels to wins over two top-25 teams last week, including No. 12 Kentucky. She and Kendall Cline are the nation's No. 41 doubles team.
"(Believe it or not), we cannot think of anything more fun than back-to-back road matches against top-10 teams," said Pollard. "We will have to be ready both days."
A common thread for these tennis powers is that they all have played Kentucky this year, with each squad defeating the Southeastern Conference's Wildcats 6-1.
Live statistics from the match against Duke will be available on www.GoDuke.com.