March 12, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Currently riding a 66-match conference dual winning streak, No. 1 Northwestern goes to work this weekend with home matches against Big Ten foes Illinois and Indiana. The action gets underway at Combe Tennis Center at 5 p.m. Friday vs. the 33rd-ranked Illini.
There are plenty of reasons to come out to both matches, including free pizza and serving contests during the break between doubles and singles play. Friday's match is also the Chipotle BIG Match, where one lucky NU student will take home a quarter's supply worth of Chipotle coupons. Fans who can't make it to Combe can stay current with live scoring for both matches, available by clicking here.
SCOUTING THE ILLINI
Illinois is off to a good start in league action with victories over Indiana and Purdue and, at 10-2 overall, has won eight consecutive dual matches. The downstate squad is led in singles by sophomore Leigh Finnegan, whose 15-5 overall record and 9-3 dual mark has earned her a No. 86 national ranking in singles play. Junior Megan Fudge has also been rock solid for the Orange and Blue, winning 11 of her 12 dual matches thus far. Illinois' last loss came on Jan. 31 against then-No. 5 Stanford.
The last time these two squads met was on April 26, 2008, in the second round of the Big Ten Championships, when NU continued its march through the tournament with a 4-0 win. The Wildcats are 39-7 all-time vs. Illinois.
SCOUTING THE HOOSIERS
Despite starting the year 6-0, Indiana now stands at 8-5 overall and is still winless on the road following a 5-2 loss at Illinois on March 7. Sigrid Fischer is 14-10 on the season and 9-4 in duals playing No. 4 singles for the Hoosiers while also pairing with Myriam Sopel to go 5-5 at No. 2 doubles this year.
Northwestern won a 6-1 decision at home in last year's regular season matchup while also downing IU 4-0 in the NCAA Regional round on May 10 in Evanston, improving to 22-25 all-time against the Hoosiers.
LAST TIME OUT
Ranked No. 1 for the fifth consecutive week, Northwestern continued its tradition of getting off to a good start in conference play by winning its Big Ten opener at Wisconsin, 7-0, on Wednesday. NU did not drop a set in singles play and surrendered just five total games in its three doubles matches. In doubles, No. 22 Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) and Lauren Lui (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) bested the 44th-ranked duo of Liz Carpenter and Angela Chupa, 8-3. Senior Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) was first off the courts in singles, upping her career record in Big Ten play to 30-1 while helping NU extend its consecutive Big Ten dual winning streak to 65 matches.
It was more of the same on Saturday as Northwestern downed Michigan State, 7-0, in East Lansing. Lui defeated Elena Ivanova at third singles, winning the 22nd straight Big Ten singles match to start her career on her way to Big Ten Player of the Week honors. The 'Cats won all three doubles matches to help earn their 33rd win in 34 all-time meetings against Michigan State.