May 28, 2006
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- They already had wins over ASU's 16th-ranked doubles team, Cal's eighth-ranked team and No. 10 Georgia Tech. Northwestern's All-American doubles tandem of senior Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) and junior Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) already had beaten a few of the premier doubles teams in college tennis before upping the ante Sunday and knocking off Stanford's top-ranked and top-seeded team of Alice Barnes and Anne Yelsey 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the NCAA doubles championship match.
The Wildcats had played the Stanford duo indoors earlier this season, and fell by a narrow margin. NU came out Sunday not intimidated by the Cardinal's No. 1 ranking and played solid tennis, putting the ball into play where they needed to and making Stanford react to them.
"We knew we could play with them after indoors and we've gotten better," head coach Claire Pollard said. "With every match we play we're getting more and more confident and, as I told the two (Grier and Prousis) before, I think they might be the best team ever to play for Northwestern because they're willing to change and get better."
Monday's title bout is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. CT. Grier and Prousis, who have a chance to become only the second team or individual to win a national championship in program history, face either No. 6 North Carolina or No. 7 Fresno State in the championship match.
As far as Sunday's match was concerned, Northwestern was ready to play from the beginning as the 'Cats broke Stanford in the first game to go up 1-0. The the Cardinal won the next two to take a 2-1 lead, but Northwestern rallied to win a deuce in the fourth game and tie the set at two games apiece.
In game five, NU broke the Cardinal duo to take a 3-2 lead, but Stanford came right back and tied the set at 3-3 by breaking the Wildcats in game six.
In the crucial seventh game, NU staved off two Stanford advantages and the 'Cats won the deuce as Prousis sent home a forehand winner to break Stanford and take a decisive 4-3 lead.
NU went on to hold serve in the eighth game and break Stanford in the ninth to claim the first set.
"We returned the ball unbelievably well," Pollard said. "We kept the ball down low every time and served to good spots. We kept them off balance and really controlled the middle, but our return quality was the match."
The two teams began the second set just as they had started the first, splitting the first four games to make it a 2-2 tie. The 'Cats again came through with a huge win in the fifth, which sparked a four-game win streak for NU.
After Northwestern had broken Stanford in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead, Grier sealed the seventh game for the 'Cats by sending a powerful ace past Barnes to put NU within one game of reserving a spot in the national championship match.
In the eighth game, NU took an early lead, but the Cardinal tied the score at 40-40. After Northwestern took the advantage, the two teams got into a rally before Prousis knocked home the forehand winner to seal the match for the Wildcats.
"We're so pumped," Prousis said following the match. "We came into the tournament just wanting to take one match at a time, so we're just so excited and we're having a lot of fun."
Grier and Prousis become the second Northwestern doubles team to advance to the national championship match and, should they win Monday, would become NU's second doubles national championship team as Katrina Adams and Diane Donnelley took home the 1987 doubles title.