Results

April 13, 2007

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Ninth-ranked Northwestern captured the doubles point and took 4-of-6 singles matches en route to a convincing win over the second-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish Friday, 5-2. The 'Cats took straight-set wins in four singles matches to hand Notre Dame only its second loss of the season.

Northwestern improves to 14-4 while Notre Dame takes their second loss of the season and falls to 21-2. Notre Dame's only other loss had been to Georgia Tech in the finals of the ITA Indoor Championships.

"I was very proud of how we performed," head coach Claire Pollard said. "We got off to a great start in doubles and carried that over to a strong start in singles."

Northwestern turned the tables on Notre Dame, taking the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3. The Irish had captured the critical first point the last time the two teams met back in February. It proved to be the difference at the Irish took a 4-3 win.

13th-ranked Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) and Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) had little trouble with the eighth-ranked pair of Christian and Catrina Thompson. The Wildcats picked up an early break to go up 2-1 and cruised to an 8-1 win. It is the duo's second win over a top-10 opponent in as many weeks.

At No. 3, Samantha Murray (Altrincham, England/Altrincham Grammar) and Alexis Conill (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) took an 8-4 bout from Colleen Rielley and Katie Potts. The 'Cats seized an early break to pull ahead 2-0. They added a break from 4-3 and they took the match on an Irish serving game.

Lauren Lui (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) and Keri Robison (Decatur, Ill./Keystone National) had their eight-match winning streak snapped when Kelcy Tefft and Kali Krisik took the No. 2 doubles match, 8-6. The Irish took a break on the first game of the match and despite several deuce games, the 'Cats could not take the break back and the match stayed on serve until the end.

NU kept rolling in singles, jumping out to early leads on several courts. At No. 1, Rose found herself in an early 3-1 hole, but broke the 26th-ranked Catrina Thompson to close to 3-2.

The sophomore held serve to tie the first set at 3-3 and she used a break of her own to pull ahead, 4-3. Rose dominated the rest of the match, not dropping another game in the first and only surrendering two games in the second set en route to a 6-3, 6-2 win.

At No. 2, Murray cruised to a straight-set win over Christian Thompson, 6-3, 6-1. The freshman dominated the second set, using a full array of passing shots. Murray dazzled the crowd with a spectacular off-balance cross-court backhand winner and later used a powerful swinging volley when up 5-1 in the second set.

Fellow freshman Lui clinched the match for the 'Cats at No. 4. Lui won in straight sets over Kelcy Tefft, 6-4, 6-3. With the 'Cats up 4-0, sophomore Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) downed Kali Krisik in straight sets at No. 6, 6-4, 6-2, to put the 'Cats ahead 5-0 over the second-ranked Irish.

The last two matches on the courts would go to 10-point "superbreakers" in place of a third set with the dual already clinched. Notre Dame got on the scoreboard with a win at No. 5. Robison took the first set from Potts, 6-3, but her opponent took the second frame, 6-4. Potts took a tight superbreaker, 10-7.

Prousis and Rielley played a thriller at No. 3 singles. The senior surrendered a tiebreaker to lose the first set, 7-6. Prousis fought back from down 5-3 to go up 6-5 on Rielley, but could not capture the first frame.

The senior rallied and dominated the second set, 6-3, forcing the 10-point tiebreaker. Prousis jumped out to an early lead, but Rielley came back to take the breaker, 11-9.

The 'Cats return to Big Ten competition at 11 a.m. Sunday against Minnesota.

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