April 5, 2006
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Northwestern's ninth-ranked women's tennis team tallied three singles victories, but it wasn't enough as No. 2 Notre Dame edged the Wildcats 4-3 Wednesday at the Courtney Tennis Center, snapping the Wildcats' six-match winning streak. Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral), Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) and Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) each earned singles wins for the 'Cats.
"I've got to give Notre Dame a lot of credit," head coach Claire Pollard said. "They played a better match than us. They made it tougher for us with every match they won and we didn't make it quite as tough on them when we won matches. Hopefully we'll learn from it and get better down the road."
Notre Dame jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead by taking two of the three three doubles matches.
The Fighting Irish's fourth-ranked team of Catrina and Christian Thompson got the first win of the day when they topped Grier and Feriel Esseghir (Sarasota, Fla./Brickhouse Academy) 8-4 at No. 1 doubles.
Northwestern then tied the doubles score at 1-1 when Rose and Alexis Conill (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) beat Notre Dame's 39th-ranked team of Brook Buck and Kelcy Tefft 8-5 at the No. 2 spot.
With the doubles point on the line, Kristina Stastny and Lauren Connelly snapped Ghazal and Jamie Peisel's (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Country Day) six-match winning streak by taking an 8-5 victory at No. 3.
Notre Dame extended its lead to 3-0 with two wins to open the singles portion of the match.
Stastny was the first to score for the Irish as she took a 6-3, 6-0 win over Esseghir at No. 5 singles.
Tefft then won a straight-set decision over Peisel at No. 4 singles 6-3, 6-1.
Ghazal got the 'Cats on the board with a win at No. 6. Ghazal won her eighth-consecutive singles match when she earned a 6-3, 6-2 win over Katie Potts.
While Ghazal cut Notre Dame's lead to two, that's as close as the Wildcats would come to catching the Irish. Buck took a 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 24 Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) at No. 3 singles to clinch the match for Notre Dame.
At No. 1 singles, NU's eighth-ranked Grier beat No. 26 Catrina Thompson 6-2, 6-3 for her sixth-straight singles win.
Rose, the nation's 44th-ranked singles player, wrapped up the action for the Wildcats by tallying her 21st-consecutive singles win. After winning the first set easily over No. 73 Christian Thompson, Rose dropped her second set, but rallied in a tight third-set tiebreaker for the 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 (8) win. Rose is now just seven victories shy of reaching Grier's school-record mark of 28-consecutive wins.
With the loss, Northwestern falls to 13-4 this season, with all of its losses coming against teams ranked in the top-20 of the ITA poll.
The 'Cats return to action with a pair of conference road matches this weekend. The 'Cats face Minnesota at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 8 before taking on No. 33 Iowa at 10 a.m. Sunday, April 9.
#2 Notre Dame 4, #9 Northwestern 3 Singles No. 1:#8 Cristelle Grier (NU) def. #30 Catrina Thompson (ND) 6-2, 6-3 No. 2:#44 Georgia Rose (NU) def. #73 Christian Thompson (ND) 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 (10-8) No. 3:* Brook Buck (ND) def. #24 Alexis Prousis (NU) 6-3, 6-3 No. 4: Kelcy Tefft (ND) def. Jamie Peisel (NU) 6-3, 6-1 No. 5: Kristina Stastny (ND) def. Feriel Esseghir (NU) 6-3, 6-0 No. 6: Nazlie Ghazal (NU) def. Katie Potts (ND) 6-3, 6-2 Order of Finish: 5, 4, 6, 3*, 1, 2 Doubles No. 1:#4 Thompson/Thompson (ND) def. Esseghir/Grier (NU) 8-4 No. 2:Alexis Conill/Rose (NU) def. #39 Buck/Tefft (ND) 8-5 No. 3:Connelly/Stastny (ND) def. Ghazal/Peisel (NU) 8-5 Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3* * - indicates clinching victory