March 14, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Claire Pollard won her 250th match as Northwestern head coach Saturday as her squad concluded another successful weekend of play with a 7-0 defeat of No. 35-ranked Indiana at Combe Tennis Center. Indiana came into Saturday's match riding high off its first road win of the year Friday night at Wisconsin but could not muster any wins against the top-ranked Wildcats.
Pollard is 250-51 in her 10-plus seasons at the helm for the Wildcats and will go for the 300th overall win of her head coaching career when NU (13-1, 4-0) travels to California to face Fresno State on March 27. She has never won fewer than 19 dual matches in a season during her time in Evanston and has led the 'Cats to a Big Ten conference title every year since her arrival.
For the fourth time in as many Big Ten duals this season, NU bested its opponent in all three doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead entering singles. At No. 3, Samantha Murray and Elena Chernyakova picked up a break in the fourth game against Alba Berdala and Charlotte Martin to go up 3-1 and maintained momentum the rest of the way, winning 8-1. It was the sixth time this season the pair has won while holding their opponents to fewer than three games.
Maria Mosolova and Keri Robison were too much for the tandem of Sigrid Fischer and Lindsey Stuckey, taking a 5-1 lead before again breaking IU's serve to go up 6-1. With Indiana serving down 7-3, NU led 40-0 before the Hoosiers rallied to three different deuce points before Mosolova iced the match with a backhand at the net. The Wildcat pair is 10-2 in dual competition and 13-3 overall in 2008-09.
At the No. 1 spot, Northwestern's Georgia Rose and Lauren Lui, ranked 22nd nationally, faced Indiana's Miriam Sopel and Katya Zapadalova and finally managed to go up a break at 5-3 in IU's fourth service game. Like at No. 2, it was an extended 11th game where Lui and Rose put the match away, winning after a third deuce point on a Lui forehand at the net.
In singles action, Mosolova had no difficulty in her match against Katya Zapadalova, winning in speedy fashion 6-1, 6-0. Mosolova (25-5) looked impressive in all facets of her game and recorded several aces along the way, most memorably a curving off-speed serve to close out the first set.
In her fourth singles match, senior Nazlie Ghazal bested Fischer in the first set by a 6-1 margin and went up a break in the third game of the second set to take control of the match, eventually winning 6-2 in the second. It was also business as usual for Lui at No. 3 as she notched her fifth straight victory, all of which have come in straight sets, with a 6-2, 6-2 downing of Indiana's Alba Berdala.
Murray came from behind in the first set at No. 2 to win 6-3 and put the pedal to the metal in the second, breaking Charlotte Martin's serve easily to gain a 4-1 edge. The two traded breaks in the next two games as Murray took a 5-2 lead before serving out the match for her 25th victory of the year, as Martin hit consecutive returns into the net to bring the match to an end.
Robison continued her hot streak with a 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (8) victory at No. 5 singles over Lindsey Stuckey of Indiana. She broke Stuckey's service game to open the second frame and held in the ensuing game to take a 2-0 lead. But Stuckey answered in the following games to even things at three and eventually took a 5-4 lead in the set. Robison valiantly held her serve after numerous deuce points to tie it at five before Stuckey eked out the next two games to send it to a match tiebreaker.
Neither competitor could mount a serious advantage in the rally scoring, with the score even at five midway through. Stuckey built a two-point lead before Robison reeled off four straight points to lead 9-7. She sealed the deal at 10-8 with a scorching forehand that was out of the reach of Stuckey, extending her recent run of singles success.
Stacey Lee edged her No. 6 singles opponent, Myriam Sopel, in the first set by a 6-4 score but fell behind 2-0 in the second when Sopel broke her opening serve game. Lee evened things at three but could not pull away as Sopel forced an extra game, where Lee came back from 40-30 down to take the set 7-5 with a forehand down the left sideline. She is 16-1 in singles play in her freshman campaign.
No. 1 Northwestern 7, No. 35 Indiana 0
Singles
No. 1: No. 2 Maria Mosolova (NU) def. Katya Zapadalova (IND), 6-2, 6-0
No. 2: No. 36 Samantha Murray (NU) def. Charlotte Martin (IND), 6-3, 6-2
No. 3: No. 109 Lauren Lui (NU) def. Alba Berdala (IND), 6-2, 6-2
No. 4: Nazlie Ghazal (NU) def. Sigrid Fischer (IND), 6-1, 6-2
No. 5: Keri Robison (NU) def. Lindsey Stuckey (IND), 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (8)
No. 6: Stacey Lee (NU) def. Myriam Sopel (IND), 6-4, 7-5
Doubles
No. 1: No. 22 Lui/Rose (NU) vs. Sopel/Zapadalova (IND), 8-3
No. 2: No. 42 Robison/Mosolova (NU) def. Fischer/Stuckey (IND), 8-3
No. 3: Chernyakova/Murray (NU) def. Berdala/Martin (IND), 8-1