June 19, 2005
EVANSTON, Ill. - For the better part of a decade now, the Northwestern women's tennis team has had a stranglehold on the Big Ten, all the while enjoying increasing success and exposure on a national level. The 2004-05 campaign was no exception.
The Wildcats put together their best season ever under head coach Claire Pollard, going 10-0 in the conference and 26-3 overall for a school record winning percentage of .897 -- besting the 1986 team's mark of 86.6% (26-4). Pollard set a school record of her own by leading the team to an undefeated conference regular season for the third time in her seven-year tenure -- besting NU's Sandy Stap Clifton's (1983-89) previous mark of two undefeated seasons.
In addition to a stellar record, the team hauled in a virtual truckload of accolades along the way:
· Big Ten Players of Week -- Audra Cohen, Cristelle Grier, Alexis Prousis (2)
· Three All-Big Ten selections -- Audra Cohen, Cristelle Grier, Alexis Prousis
· Big Ten Freshman of the Year -- Audra Cohen
· Big Ten Player of the Year -- Audra Cohen
· Big Ten Coach of the Year -- Claire Pollard
· Big Ten Regular Season Title
· Seventh-straight Big Ten Tournament Title
· ITA Midwest Region Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award -- Cristelle Grier
· ITA Midwest Region Player to Watch -- Alexis Prousis
· ITA Midwest Region Rookie of the Year -- Audra Cohen
· ITA Midwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year -- Leigh Weinraub
· ITA Midwest Region Head Coach of the Year -- Claire Pollard
· ITA National Rookie of the Year -- Audra Cohen
· ITA All-Americans -- Audra Cohen, Cristelle Grier
Tack on a school record No. 5 final ITA national ranking and it's clear the 2004-05 season was a huge success.
The team began the spring season by making a splash in the national rankings, opening at No. 5 -- the highest ranking in the team's 30-year history at the time. A couple month later, the `Cats peaked at No. 2 in the March 22 rankings.
Much of the reason Northwestern opened the season in such high esteem with the voters was the incredible show a number of `Cats put on in the fall.
For instance, in addition to adjusting to dorm food, freshman Audra Cohen (Plantation, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) also found the time to win three singles and doubles titles in the fall. She began her career with a 4-0 performance at the Rice Invitational, beating teammate Cristelle Grier -- then-No. 1 singles player in the nation -- for the title. But Cohen was just warming up. Her next title came on a much grander scale: she recorded 12 victories in nine days en route to winning the ITA National Singles Championship, becoming Northwestern's first-ever national singles champion. She dropped only one set on her road to the title, knocking off Grier in the final. Tired yet? Cohen wasn't. She followed that performance by winning six more at the ITA Midwest Championship, again defeating Grier in the title match. All told, Cohen won her first 23 matches before falling to USC's Nicole Leimbach in the Round of 16 at the ITA National Indoor Singles Championship.
Coming off her second-straight All-America nod in 2004, junior Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) entered the fall season as the nation's top-ranked singles player. She was the ITA National Singles Championship and Midwest Regional Championship runner-up to Cohen, and teamed with Cohen to repeat as both National Indoor and Midwest Region Doubles Champion. Grier claimed both titles in 2003 alongside Jessica Rush.
Sophomore Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) opened the fall with a strong 3-1 mark at the Rice Invitational before going 4-1 at the ITA Midwest Regional Championship. She later used her 4-0 performance at the Milwaukee Classic as a megaphone to announce she would be a force to be reckoned with come spring. Prousis left the Milwaukee Classic with the doubles title as well, winning alongside graduate student Valerie Vladea (Tiffin, Iowa/Burlington Central).
Vladea also showed signs of brilliance in the fall by going 11-5 in singles and 13-4 in doubles, eluding to just how indispensable she would be in the spring. A transplanted Golden Gopher, Vladea was a three-time All-Big Ten selection at Minnesota from 2001-03 -- becoming just the third athlete in the Gophers' history to be named to the team three times. With the `Cats, Vladea put together the best season of her career by going 34-9 overall.
By the end of the fall, Cohen, Grier, Prousis and Vladea had established themselves as NU's top-four singles players. Pollard still needed a consistent No. 5 and 6 singles player and a No. 2 and 3 doubles team, but those pieces would fall into place as the season went along.
Newcomers freshman Alexis Conill (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) and transfer Feriel Esseghir (Sarasota, Fla./Brickhouse Academy), along with two-year starter Jamie Peisel (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Country Day) further bolstered an already talented NU lineup.
With a roster as deep as nearby Lake Michigan, the `Cats still needed leadership. That's where seniors Kristi Roemer (Piedmont, Calif./Piedmont) and Andrea Yung (San Marino, Calif./San Marino) came in. Each led by example every time they stepped on the court. Roemer anchored the doubles competition over the course of the season with a 21-5 record, while Yung was 12-2 in singles dual competition for a combined winning percentage of .840.
Roemer had seen limited action in dual doubles matches her first three years in Evanston (8-7 record from 2002-04), but closed her career on a high note. Finishing 21-5, she did the bulk of her damage teamed with Prousis at the No. 2 position. They were ranked as high as No. 18 on Feb. 22 after knocking off then-No. 10 duo Amy Wei and Megan Muth from William & Mary.
Yung drew the curtain on her NU career in style as well, becoming one of five `Cats to go undefeated in regular season conference singles and one of eight `Cats to go undefeated in conference doubles. 10 of her 11 dual victories came in straight sets and she posted at least 20 overall victories for the third time in her career.
Four other Wildcats put together undefeated regular season conference singles records: Cohen, Grier and Prousis all finished 10-0 and Vladea was 9-0.
Perfection in the conference was not limited to singles competition. Eight `Cats were undefeated in regular season conference doubles competition, helping Northwestern to an impeccable 30-0 record.
Northwestern's doubles game was a strength all year, as the team claimed the team point a whopping 26 out of 29 times. The Wildcats' combined doubles record was 66-16 for an .804 winning percentage. Wisconsin became the first and only Big Ten team to take the doubles point from the `Cats when the Badgers won at the No. 1 and 2 positions in the semifinals of the Big Ten Championships (4/30). NU still rallied to win the match, 4-1.
Yet another note of flawlessness for the `Cats was their home record. Northwestern went 8-0 inside Combe Tennis Center. Once the weather warmed up, the `Cats moved outdoors to Vandy Christie Tennis Center, where they posted a cool 6-0 mark to finish the season a combined 14-0 in Evanston.
The Wildcats not only found success at "Combe Sweet Combe" but practically anywhere and against even the best of challengers. Northwestern went 11-3 against opponents in the top-30, and were 3-0 against top-10 teams. They beat then-No. 10 Tulane, 5-2, at the ITA Indoor Team Championships (2/5). Against the Green Wave, Northwestern charged back to win after dropping the doubles point for what would turn out to be one of only three times times all year. The `Cats then returned home to down then-No. 9 North Carolina, 4-3, and then-No. 5 Duke, 5-2, on the same weekend (2/19, 2/20). NU's only three losses to top-30 competition came against then-No. 13 Georgia, 5-2 (2/3), then-No. 24 California, 4-2 (3/23) and then-No. 11 Clemson, 4-3 (5/19).
After falling at then-No. 24 California in rain-soaked conditions, the `Cats went on a tear of 15-straight victories. On April 14, the `Cats defeated then-No. 26 Notre Dame, 5-2. A week later, Northwestern closed the regular season at Ohio State by sweeping the Buckeyes and extending their win streak to 10.
Then at the Big Ten Championship hosted by Michigan State, the `Cats yielded just two total points in three matches en route to claiming their seventh-straight tournament title. They swept Penn State, 4-0, in the first round, beat Wisconsin, 4-1, in the semifinals and took down the Wolverines, 4-1, for the championship.
Northwestern claimed the fifth seed from the NCAA Tournament selection committee and the right to host to their fifth-straight NCAA Regional Championship. There, Northwestern rolled with sweeps over Valparaiso and Notre Dame. Then, in the NCAA Championship Round of 16 in Athens, Ga. against Clemson, the Tigers slipped past the `Cats with a 4-3 victory, despite Northwestern winning the doubles point.
Even though the team's season was over, Audra Cohen and Cristelle Grier stayed in Athens to compete in the singles and doubles portions of the NCAA Tournament. Cohen was seeded third in singles, while the duo was seeded second.
On day one of the singles draw, Grier dropped a three-set heartbreaker to Virginia Commonwealth's Marianna Yuferova. Cohen, on the other hand, advanced the championship final by defeating Dea Sumantri (Washington), Carolin Walter (Baylor), Kristi Miller (Georgia Tech), Story Tweedie-Yates (TCU) and Riza Zalameda (UCLA). In the final though, Baylor's Zuzana Zemenova defeated Cohen 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. Cohen closed the season 51-7 -- one of only eight players in NCAA Division I women's tennis history to notch at least 50 wins in a season. Her 51 wins puts her in a tie for third most in the modern era.
In doubles action, Cohen and Grier won their opening match against South Florida and an epic three-hour, second-round match against Michigan, before beating William & Mary in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, their unbelievable season together came to an end against Stanford's Amber Liu and Anne Yelsey. The duo finished the season 37-7 overall and were ranked No. 2 in the ITA's final rankings.
Despite ending the season a bit short of the National Championship, the 2004-05 Wildcats put together an unforgettable year. With Roemer, Vladea and Yung the only players graduating, Pollard and the `Cats show no signs of slowing down in the near future.