Feb. 3, 2006
MADISON, Wis. -- Northwestern's fourth-ranked women's tennis team resumed its winning ways Friday by topping 12th-ranked Kentucky 5-2 in the opening-consolation round at the USTA-ITA Women's Team Indoor Championships. Northwestern took the doubles point then won four of six singles matches for the win.
Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) and Jamie Peisel (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Country Day) struck first for the Wildcats by rolling past Kentucky's Danielle Petrisko and Caroline Winebrenner 8-3 at No. 3 doubles.
Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) and Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) then clinched the doubles point for the Wildcats with a dominating 8-1 win over UK's 18th-ranked team of Kim Coventry and Joelle Schwenk at No. 1 doubles.
At No. 2 doubles, Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) and Feriel Esseghir (Sarasota, Fla./Brickhouse Academy/UCLA) were edged by Carolina Escamilla and Lara Maurer in the tiebreaker, 8-7 (5).
The Wildcats held onto a 1-0 lead entering the singles portion of the match, but Kentucky tied the score as the 53rd-ranked Coventry topped No. 12 Prousis at No. 1 singles 6-3, 6-2.
With the team score now tied at 1-1, the 'Cats responded by rattling off four-consecutive victories.
Rose continued her impressive freshman year by notching another straight-set win. This time she topped Maurer at No. 3 singles 6-2, 6-4, regaining the lead for Northwestern.
At No. 5 singles, Esseghir won the ninth of her last 10 matches, beating Jessica Giuggioli. Esseghir outlasted Giuggioli in the second-set tiebreaker and took the match 6-4, 7-6 (5).
Grier, a senior All-American, then clinched the win for the 'Cats by defeating Schwenk at the No. 2 spot 6-4, 6-4.
Ghazal tallied the final singles win for the Wildcats by coming back from a second-set loss to win the super-tiebreaker over Petrisko at No. 6 singles. Ghazal won the match 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-4).
Peisel won her second set versus Escamilla, but fell in a tight tiebreaker 2-6, 7-5, 1-0 (13-11).
With the win, Northwestern improves its record to 2-1 this season. Northwestern returns to action at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 4 as it faces No. 3 Georgia in its second-consolation match.