July 1, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern tennis players Cristelle Grier and Jessica Rush were named to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) 2004 Collegiate All-Star Team, which was announced recently.
The pair will be honored by the ITA at an Outing and Awards Luncheon at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y. on Friday, August 27. The Outing will be hosted by the ITA and presented by the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. Tennis Week will be the presenting media sponsor for the event.
Grier and Rush combined to go 41-5 last season, easily surpassing the previous record of 26 doubles wins by one team in a season. The highlight came during the fall campaign, when they won the ITA National Indoor Championship in November. As a result, the duo entered the spring campaign as the top-ranked doubles team in the nation. For the second year in a row, Grier and Rush ended the campaign by competing in the NCAA Doubles Championship, where they advanced to the quartefinal round before losing.
Rush graduated in June. Grier is slated to return to Northwestern as a junior in the fall.
The other Division I women's doubles teams that will be honored at the ITA event will be NCAA champions Daniela Bercek and Lauren Fisher of UCLA, as well as Lauren Barnikow and Erin Burdette of Stanford who finished the season with the No. 1 ITA ranking.
The ITA named Collegiate All-Star Teams at all three NCAA divisions, as well as NAIA and NJCAA, and also announced Lee Taylor Walker (Memphis men) and Courtney Nagle (Oregon women) as the recipients of its 2004 Arthur Ashe Jr. Awards for Leadership and Sportsmanship.
THE 2004 ITA COLLEGIATE ALL-STAR TEAMS
Division I Women's Singles
Alexis Gordon, Florida
Amber Liu, Stanford
Agata Cioroch, Georgia
Division I Women's Doubles
Daniela Bercek / Lauren Fisher, UCLA
Cristelle Grier / Jessica Rush, Northwestern
Lauren Barnikow / Erin Burdette, Stanford