Feb. 4, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern's fourth-ranked women's tennis team improved to 3-1 this season after defeating No. 6 Georgia 6-0 during the third day of the USTA-ITA Women's Team Indoor Championships. Northwestern dropped just one match on the day and swept the singles portion in the win.
Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) and Feriel Esseghir (Sarasota, Fla./Brickhouse Academy/UCLA) started the winning ways for Northwestern by topping Georgia's Evgenia Subbotina and Darya Ivanov at No. 2 singles, 8-6.
After Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) and Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) dropped their match at No. 1, Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) and Jamie Peisel (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Country Day) clinched the doubles point for the 'Cats by beating the Bulldogs' Natalie Frazier and Kelley Hyndman, 8-5.
Northwestern rattled off five-consecutive singles wins after claiming the doubles point.
Ghazal gave Northwestern a 2-0 lead after blanking Hyndman is straight sets 6-0, 6-0.
Twelfth-ranked Prousis followed suit by topping Georgia's Shadisha Robinson 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2 singles, extending Northwestern's lead to 3-0.
No. 23 Grier then clinched the match for the Wildcats by topping the 37th-ranked Frazier 6-4, 6-4 at No. 1 singles. With the win, Grier moved to 3-0 in the tournament.
Peisel then topped No. 100 Ivanov at No. 4 singles. After taking the first set in a tiebreaker, Peisel dropped the second set but roared back to win the match 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-4.
Rose made it 6-0 Wildcats by topping 57th-ranked Caroline Basu 6-4, 6-1 at No. 3 singles. She also went 3-0 in singles play during the tournament.
Esseghir's match versus Subbotina at No. 5 singles was not finished, giving Northwestern the 6-0 win.
With the win, Northwestern improves to 3-1 on the year and 14-10 in eight USTA-ITA appearances. The Wildcats return to action by hosting Alabama at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11.