Jan. 15, 2006
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Northwestern had two doubles teams advance to the semifinals Saturday at the National Collegiate Tennis Championships. The team of Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) and Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) as well as the team of Alexis Conill (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) and Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) advance to Sunday's semifinal round after going 1-0 and 2-0, respectively, in doubles play.
After receiving a bye in the doubles round of 16, Grier and Prousis faced Stanford's Whitney Deason and Jessica Nguyen in the quarterfinals. Grier and Prousis prevailed with an 8-6 victory, improving their doubles-team record to 11-1 this season.
Conill and Rose drew the doubles team of Texas' Kelly Baritot and USC's Diane Mattias in the second round. Baritot and Mattias were paired to make a doubles team due to an uneven number of players on their respective teams. Conill and Rose needed an extra point, but took the match 9-7.
In the quarterfinals, Conill and Rose faced Florida's team of Lolita Frangulyan and Diana Srebrovic. Florida's team defaulted, however, giving Conill and Rose an easy road to the semifinal round.
The doubles team of Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) and Jamie Peisel (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Country Day) fell in the first round of doubles competition, dropping an 8-5 decision to Southern California's Lindsey Nelson and Luana Magnani.
In singles play, both Grier and Prousis were still alive Saturday in the championship bracket.
Grier won her quarterfinal match over Stanford's Jessica Nguyen to advance to the semifinal round. Grier dropped the second set, but took the match 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
In the semifinal round, Grier fell to Stanford's Whitney Deason 6-3, 6-2.
Prousis won the first set of her quarterfinal match, but dropped the next two sets to Southern California's No. 8 seeded Diane Mattias. Mattias won the match by a score of 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Play resumes Sunday with the doubles semifinal and final rounds.