April 8, 2010
2010 Northwestern Dual Statistics
EVANSTON, Ill. -- For the second consecutive road trip, fifth-ranked Northwestern will be traveling to the home courts of a team just days removed from reaching the top spot in the Campbell's/ITA College Tennis rankings. This time, No. 1 Baylor awaits Northwestern at 5 p.m. Friday in the first of back-to-back matches that will conclude with a dual at No. 27 Texas at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Live online scoring for the Baylor match can be found by clicking here. Northwestern (14-4, 5-1), coming off a 6-1 victory over Michigan State on Sunday, last faced Baylor when completing this same road trip in March, 2008, in a 5-2 win for the 'Cats. Last season, NU hosted Texas at the Combe Tennis Center and won a 6-1 decision on Feb. 8.
Hitting the Century Mark
With her 6-2, 6-2 victory at No. 1 singles against Michigan State, NU junior Maria Mosolova reached the 100-win plateau for her Wildcat career. Mosolova compiled a stellar 77-14 record while twice reaching All-American status in singles during her first two seasons and this season has collected 23 victories while going 13-5 in dual matches. Mosolova is currently ranked No. 13 in the nation after last year earning the No. 1 overall seed at the NCAA Singles Championships.
Shuffling the Deck
Late in the dual season, Northwestern has continued to use a variety of combinations in their doubles lineup, raising their total to 15 different pairings that have competed in their 18 dual matches this season. Lauren Lui and Elena Chernyakova have coupled to play the most matches together of any tandem (10) while Samantha Murray and Kate Turvy have the highest winning percentage together, winning eight of their 10 matches as a team.
Scouting the Bears
Baylor (16-2) has ascended to the No. 1 position in the rankings thanks to its current 10-match winning streak that most recently included an impressive 6-1 win against sixth-ranked Notre Dame. The Bears' last loss came by a 4-3 score against Michigan on Feb. 26, the same score by which the Wolverines overcame Northwestern last Saturday in Evanston. Individually, Baylor is very strong at the top with No. 6 Lenka Broosova posting a 22-5 overall singles mark with a 15-1 record at the No. 1 spot in duals while 16th-ranked Nina Secerbegovic has run off 18 wins in a row to boost her record at the No. 2 singles position to 12-0. In doubles, Baylor's No. 1 team of Broosova and Csilia Borsanyi has risen to No. 8 in the national polls. NU is 3-0 all-time against Baylor.
Scouting the Longhorns
Texas (9-4) is led in singles by the 28th-ranked Aerial Ellis while Krista Damico, this week's Big 12 Player of the Week, is up to No. 46 in the singles polls. Also providing experience for UT is senior Vanja Corovic, a 2008 All-Big 12 selection in singles and doubles and a participant in the 2008 NCAA Doubles Championships. The Longhorns topped Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in their most recent outings, with their only conference loss of the year coming at the hands of Baylor. Texas head coach Patty Fendick-McCain is in her fifth season as head coach in Austin and is two years removed from a round of 16 appearance at the NCAA Tournament.