Oct. 27, 2009
Final Midwest Regional Singles Bracket
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern junior Maria Mosolova, the top-ranked singles player in the Campbell's/ITA College Tennis poll, defeated 20th-ranked Kristy Frilling of Notre Dame 6-1, 6-3 Tuesday in the singles final of the 2009 ITA Midwest Regional Championships. Mosolova, the seventh NU player since 2001 to claim the regional title, will move on to the National Indoor Singles Championships Nov. 5-8 at Yale University.
By emerging as champion from the 64-player field, Mosolova adds the title of Midwest Regional singles champion to a resume that already includes two ITA Singles All-American selections and back-to-back Big Ten Player of the Year awards. Mosolova also was one of four finalists for the 2009 Honda Sports Award presented annually to college tennis' top performer.
"I'm pretty happy with how I played this weekend, I thought I played better than I had been a few weeks ago," Mosolova said after the match. "This is the first time I've ever played Kristy (Frilling), and it's rare in college tennis to go this long without playing someone so it was fun and challenging because of that."
Tuesday morning's match was very even at the start, with the opening two games going to deuce before each player was able to hold their respective service games. It was all Mosolova from then on, however, as the NU junior broke Frilling's serve in the fourth game and dominated the next two games to take the first set 6-1.
Frilling responded with a strong start to the second, winning the opening game and breaking Mosolova's serve in the ensuing game to go up 2-0. Mosolova came back to tie things at two and again at three before notching a critical break of Frilling's serve to take control at 4-3.
Following two deuce points, Mosolova served out her game to go up 5-3 and did not drop a single point in the final game, winning the match on her first championship point when a Frilling backhand sailed beyond the baseline.
The entire Wildcat team is back in action in two weeks for their final fall tournaments--the Duals in the Desert and the National Indoor Singles Championships. As a sophomore in 2008, Mosolova reached the semifinal round of the National Indoors.
NU's Midwest Regional Singles Champions
1999: Katherine Nasser
2001: Marine Piriou
2002: Cristelle Grier
2003: Cristelle Grier
2004: Audra Cohen
2005: Alexis Prousis
2007: Georgia Rose
2008: Samantha Murray
2009: Maria Mosolova