Northwestern NCAA Regional Notes
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May 11, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- After winning it's eighth-consecutive Big Ten title, Northwestern's ninth-ranked women's tennis team has earned a No. 11 seed for the upcoming NCAA Women's Tennis Championships. The 'Cats open play by facing Illinois-Chicago in the first round at 10 a.m. Friday, May 12 at the Vandy Christie Tennis Center. In case of inclement weather, the matches will be moved to the Combe Tennis Center. Directions and Regional Championship information can be found at NUsports.com.
The Wildcats begin the tournament by hosting a Regional Championship for the sixth-straight year.
No. 17 Harvard and No. 43 Purdue also will make the trip to Evanston, as the two will face off in Friday's other first-round matchup at 2 p.m.
The winner of the two first-round matches are slated to play at noon on Saturday, May 13.
Live scoring updates for all three of the regional matches is available on the NCAA Regional Championship page, which can be accessed through NUsports.com.
No. 9 Northwestern (21-4, 13-0) enters this weekend on a roll, as the 'Cats have won eight-straight matches dating back to April 8. The Wildcats dropped only three individual matches (two doubles and one singles versus Michigan) in its three Big Ten Championship competitions and have taken the doubles point in seven of its last eight tries. The 'Cats have played two of the other three teams in the regional, beating Purdue twice (6-1, 4-0) and Harvard once (4-3). Northwestern leads the all-time series with Harvard 9-1, Illinois-Chicago 4-0 and Purdue 34-1.
NU enters the Regional Championship with three players ranked in singles and one ranked doubles team:
No. 13 Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) No. 35 Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) No. 45 Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) No. 13 Cristelle Grier/Alexis Prousis (doubles)
The Wildcats have received an NCAA Championships bid in each of head coach Claire Pollard's eight seasons in Evanston. Northwestern has hosted a regional in each of the last five years and have advanced out of the regional in four of those five seasons.
Northwestern ties a school record this season as it sends three singles players and a doubles team selected for the NCAA singles and doubles championships. Grier, Prousis and Rose each will compete in the singles competition, while the doubles team of Grier and Prousis is slated to compete in the doubles tournament. This is the first singles championship selection for Prousis and Rose and the fourth for Grier. The singles and doubles championships will be held May 23-28 at the Taube Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif.
The Wildcats cleaned up in the Big Ten postseason awards, presented two weeks ago. Grier earned her third Big Ten Player of the Year selection -- a Big Ten record -- while Rose became the third Wildcat in the last four years to be named conference Freshman of the Year. Prousis also was named All-Big Ten for the second-straight season.
The Wildcats enter the NCAA Championships looking to break, or continue breaking, a number of team and individual records:
Team: Shutouts, 11 (NU record, 13) Grier: Career Singles Wins, 176 (holds record) All-America Honors, 3 (holds record) Rose: Consecutive Wins, 29 (holds record)Probable Lineup Doubles: No. 1--Cristelle Grier/Alexis Prousis No. 2--Feriel Esseghir/Georgia Rose No. 3--Nazlie Ghazal/Jamie Peisel Singles: No. 1--Georgia Rose No. 2--Cristelle Grier No. 3--Alexis Prousis No. 4--Jamie Peisel No. 5--Feriel Esseghir No. 6--Nazlie Ghazal