April 23, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. -- After raising the stakes in the regular season once again, No. 1 Northwestern is aiming to up the ante in the postseason as well, beginning with the Big Ten Tournament in Madison, Wis. Northwestern hits the courts at the A.C. Nielsen Tennis Stadium for the first time at 10 a.m. Friday against the winner of a first-round match between eighth-seeded Minnesota and ninth-seeded Penn State.
Live scoring for all matches will be provided by host Wisconsin on their official tournament page.
The Wildcats, who have posted back-to-back one-loss regular seasons, tore through the competition this season with a 22-1 record (10-0 Big Ten) while keeping the top spot in the Campbell/ITA College Tennis poll from wire to wire.
For the fifth season in a row, the Wildcats emerged from the conference regular season with a perfect 10-0 mark, extending their winning streak against Big Ten opponents to 74 matches. Their 11 straight conference titles--a streak which began in Claire Pollard's first season in Evanston in 1999--represents the second-longest championship monopoly by any women's team in the history of the Big Ten, behind only Michigan's run of 12 straight swimming and diving crowns from 1987-98.
BACK AT THE SCENE
Northwestern no doubt feels very comfortable in the setting of this year's Big Ten Women's Tennis Tournament considering its success in the ITA National Indoor Team Championship played at Wisconsin in February. After reaching the finals for the first time a year ago, the Wildcats broke through this season when they defeated Georgia 4-1 in the final match to win its first title.
In fact, NU became just the sixth program in the 22-year history of the event to claim the championship, joining Florida, Stanford, Georgia, Duke and Georgia Tech as the only winners. Ten of the previous 21 winners of the Indoor Team Championship went on to capture the NCAA title that same season.
COMFORTABLE AT THE TOP
When Northwestern reached the No. 1 spot of the Campbell/ITA College Tennis rankings for the first time on Feb. 26, 2008, it was only the seventh school in the last 20 years to garner such recognition. It was also the first northern school to notch that distinction. Since that time, NU has been in the top spot in 24 of the last 25 rankings released by the ITA after finishing just fractions of a point behind national champion UCLA at the conclusion of last season.
STREAK HAPPY
Several Wildcats enter the postseason with noteworthy winning streaks. On the doubles side, Maria Mosolova and Keri Robison have taken 13 in a row at the No. 2 spot while Elena Chernyakova and Samantha Murray have won their last 12 matches at No. 3. Nazlie Ghazal (13) leads the way in singles while Georgia Rose and Lauren Lui have each won six straight.
LOOKING BACK
Northwestern's record-setting streak of consecutive conference championships reached double digits last year at Purdue as the Wildcats cruised through three 4-0 victories. NU met second-seeded Michigan in the final match but was never seriously challenged, as Samantha Murray notched the clinching third singles win with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Denise Muresan at No. 3.