April 4, 2010
Complete Results
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 4 Northwestern played its first outdoor home dual of the 2010 season on Sunday as it coasted past Michigan State 6-1 on a sunny but at times blustery day in Evanston. NU won eight of nine matches, including a dominating 6-0, 6-0 victory at No. 6 singles by Linda Abu Mushrefova in her first career dual singles match with the 'Cats.
Now in the back half of its Big Ten dual season, NU improved to 5-1 in the conference and 14-4 overall while Michigan State dropped to 6-13 on the year.
Northwestern fielded three different doubles teams compared to its lineup a day ago versus Michigan, including the No. 1 pairing of Maria Mosolova and Elena Chernyakova. The Wildcats were in command early against Michigan State's Whitney Wilson and Nicole Herzog and held on to post an 8-2 victory. Mosolova accounted for the final point of the match with a perfectly placed lob that was out of the reach of either Spartan player.
NU then clinched the doubles point with an identical 8-2 victory at No. 3 by Stacey Lee and Kate Turvy over Manon Noe and Christine Milliken. The doubles sweep was complete when Samantha Murray and Abu Mushrefova won five of the last six games to break open their No. 2 match against Elena Ivanova and Michaela Silesova to win, 8-4.
Northwestern remained in control in singles, particularly at the bottom three spots of the lineup where Lee, Chernyakova and Abu Mushrefova all opened immediate sizeable leads. After winning the final 12 games of her singles match Saturday vs. Michigan, Lee won the first five against MSU's Elena Ivanova at No. 4, winning the first set 6-1 before overcoming Ivanova down the stretch in the second, 6-4. Lee is 13-2 in dual matches in her sophomore season.
Abu Mushrefova's back-to-back blank sheets came against Michigan State's Christine Milliken at No. 6. After the 13th-ranked Mosolova downed MSU's Michaela Silesova 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 1 spot for her 100th-career singles win, Chernyakova posted a 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 5 against Renata de Paiva to give the Wildcats their clinching fourth team point.
At No. 2 singles, Murray found her stride in the second set in defeating Nicole Herzog, 6-4, 6-0 to improve to 11-6 at the second spot this season. In the closest match of the afternoon, Turvy rebounded from dropping the first set against Michigan State's Whitney Wilson to come back and take the second, 6-2. Turvy and Wilson were even at two in the second when Wilson was able to string together a number of good rallies, going on to take the set 6-2 and pull back a point for the Spartans.
Through six Big Ten duals this season, NU head coach Claire Pollard has improved her career mark in conference duals over the last 11-plus years to 109-7.
The Wildcats resume competition on Friday when they travel to take on Baylor in the first of back-to-back matches in the Lone Star State.
No. 4 Northwestern 6, Michigan State 1
Singles
1: #13 Maria Mosolova (NU) def. Michaela Silesova (MSU), 6-2, 6-2
2: #45 Samantha Murray (NU) def. Nicole Herzog (MSU), 6-4, 6-0
3: Whitney Wilson (MSU) def. Kate Turvy (NU), 7-5, 2-6, 6-2
4: Stacey Lee (NU) def. Elena Ivanova (MSU), 6-1, 6-4
5: Elena Chernyakova (NU) def. Renata de Paiva (MSU), 6-0, 6-2
6: Linda Abu Mushrefova (NU) def. Christine Milliken (MSU), 6-0, 6-0
Doubles
1: Chernyakova/Mosolova (NU) def. Wilson/Herzog (MSU), 8-2
2: Abu Mushrefova/Murray (NU) def. Ivanova/Silesova (MSU), 8-4
3: Lee/Turvy (NU) def. Milliken/Noe (MSU), 8-2
Order of Finish
Singles: (6, 1, 5*, 2, 4, 3)
Doubles: (1, 3*, 2)