Sept. 19, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -- After setting a new standard for team wins in a season and capturing a 10th straight Big Ten Championship in 2007-08, Northwestern returns to the courts Sept. 26-28 at the Furman Invitational in Greenville, S.C. In the recently released ITA Preseason Rankings, NU senior Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) and sophomore Maria Mosolova (Moscow, Russia/No. 204)—the last two Big Ten Players of the Year—are ranked No. 6 and No. 11, respectively, making NU the only school with two players in the top 12 nationally.
Mosolova and Rose also earned bids to the main draw of the 2008 ITA All-American Championships to be held Oct. 2-5 at UCLA. The doubles team of Rose and junior Lauren Lui (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid), which earned a No. 7 ranking in the preseason poll, will compete in the main draw of the doubles tournament.
In the qualifying draw of the Championships, Lui and junior Samantha Murray (Altrincham, England/Altrincham Grammar) will compete in the singles tournament while Murray will team with senior Keri Robison (Decatur, Ill./Keystone National) in doubles play having earned a No. 29 preseason ranking. Murray, who defeated five ranked opponents on her way to winning the qualifying consolation draw of the All-American Championships in 2007, is ranked No. 30 nationally in singles play.
Senior Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral), ranked No. 101, will compete in the pre-qualifying draw of the All-American Championships.
Under 10th-year head coach Claire Pollard, Northwestern returns all but twp players to a team that earned the school its first No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament last spring. Two freshman newcomers, Stacey Lee of Westbury, N.Y. and Elena Chernyakova of Moscow, Russia, will look to contribute immediately in both singles and doubles action.
Fans can get their first look at the 'Cats in Evanston when they host the Wildcat Fall Invitational Oct. 10-12 at the Vandy Christie Tennis Center.