April 14, 2007

Results

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Behind a sweep of doubles and wins at all but two singles matches, the ninth-ranked Wildcats defeated the 53rd-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers Saturday, 5-2. Sophomore Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) and freshman Suzie Matzenauer (Tacoma, Wash./Bellarmine) cruised to 6-0, 6-0 wins at No. 5 and No. 6 singles, respectively.

Northwestern improves to 7-0 in the Big Ten and 15-4 overall. Minnesota falls to 9-9 overall, 2-5 in the Big Ten.

During Northwestern's final regular season home match on Sunday, senior Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) will be honored in a Senior Day ceremony.

Head coach Claire Pollard rested sophomore Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day), causing the Wildcats to play an unfamiliar lineup. However, the results were similar as the 'Cats took all three doubles matches.

At No. 1, the pair of Keri Robison (Decatur, Ill./Keystone National) and Lauren Lui (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) got off to a slow start against Minnesota's Lindsay Risebrough and Ashley Schellhas, dropping a break to go down 0-1 and 1-2.

The Wildcats found their stride with a break to tie the set at 2-2 and cruised to an 8-4 win from there.

Prousis teamed with Matzenauer at No. 2 and the duo, playing together for the first time this season, needed less than 40 minutes to down Tijana Koprivica and Ida Malmberg, 8-2.

The No. 3 team stayed intact with Alexis Conill (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) and Samantha Murray (Altrincham, England/Altrincham Grammar) dominating Mikayla Rogers and Karina Chiarelli, 8-1.

NU clinched the dual by taking straight-set singles wins at No. 6, No. 5 and No. 2. Ghazal and Matzenauer did not surrender a game en route to 6-0, 6-0 wins at No. 5 and No. 6, respectively.

Prousis, playing at No. 2, won the clincher for the 'Cats with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Koprivica.

At No. 3, Lui dropped the first set to Malmberg, 6-2, but won the next six games and a third-set "superbreaker" to take the match, 2-6, 6-0, 1-0 (12-10).

Minnesota captured the last two matches in 10-point tiebreakers in place of third sets. At No. 4, Robison, who fell in a 10-pointer on Friday, took the first set from Risebrough, 6-3, but after dropping the second set, 6-4, fell 10-6 in the breaker.

Murray, playing at the No. 1 spot, lost a close first set to schellhas, 6-4, but rallied back to take the second frame by the same score.

Murray trailed 7-2 in the superbreaker and rallied back to 9-7, but Schellhas converted on her match point opportunity to give Minnesota its second win of the dual.

The Wildcats close out their regular season home schedule at 11 a.m. Sunday against Iowa. During the match, Alexis Prousis will be honored in a Senior Day ceremony.

Prousis and former Wildcat Cristelle Grier captured the 2006 NCAA Doubles Championship and Prousis is a two-time All-Big Ten selection, a 2006 doubles All-American and participated in the 2006 U.S. Open.

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