Jan. 24, 2007
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern opened its dual season on the right foot Wednesday with a dominating 6-1 win over DePaul at the Combe Tennis Center. The ninth-ranked Wildcats swept doubles and sophomores Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) and Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) lost only one game between them in singles. The 'Cats face their first test Sunday when they host the 10th-ranked Duke Blue Devils.
The Wildcats surrendered only six games en route to a sweep of the doubles matches. The No. 3 pair of Ghazal and Keri Robison (Decatur, Ill./Keystone National) defeated DePaul's Bojana Murisic and Anja Mihaldinec, 8-1. The Wildcats clinched the doubles point when Lauren Lui (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) and Samantha Murray (Altrincham, England/Altrincham Grammar), playing No. 2 doubles, notched an 8-2 win over Petra Rehusova and Kirsten Gambrell. The duo dropped the first game of the match and let another slip away before finally shutting the door on the Blue Demons.
With the doubles point sealed, the No. 1 tandem of Rose and Alexis Conill (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) topped Dunja Antunovic and Beatrix Csordas, 8-3, to give NU the sweep of doubles.
In singles action, Ghazal cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Anja Mihaldinec at the No. 5 spot, while Rose surrendered only one game en route to a 6-0, 6-1 win over Beatrix Csordas at No. 1. Suzie Matzenauer (Tacoma, Wash./Bellarmine) had little trouble at the No. 4 spot, downing Kirsten Gambrell in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1.
Lui dropped her first set to Petra Rehusova, 6-4, but took the second set 6-3 to even the score and force a first to 10 "superbreaker" to decide the match. The two went back and forth for the early part of the breaker, but Lui finally pulled away to win 10-5 and cap off the comeback victory.
The ''Cats will face their first ranked opponent of 2007 when they welcome the 10th-ranked Duke Blue Devils to the Combe Tennis Center Sunday at 11 a.m.