March 3, 2006

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern's ninth-ranked women's tennis team returns to action when it travels to Atlanta to face No. 3 Georgia Tech at noon on Saturday, March 4. The Wildcats have tallied wins over five top-25 teams already this season.

The Wildcats enter the match on a two-match losing skid after being edged by No. 10 North Carolina 4-3, and falling to No. 8 Duke 5-2 last weekend.

Despite the setbacks last weekend, the 'Cats have continued to get stellar play up and down their roster.

Freshman Georgia Rose is the 36th-ranked singles player in the nation and has proven why throughout this early dual season. Rose has won her last 14 singles matches dating back to the fall, and is undefeated in singles play this spring, taking wins at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles positions. Rose stands at 22-6 overall this year, with a 10-0 mark in dual play.

Senior All-American Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) is ranked 10th in the country and has won 10 of her last 11 singles matches. Her only loss this spring has come to Duke's second-ranked singles player Daniela Bercek. Grier is 23-8 overall this year.

Junior Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) is the 15th-ranked singles player and has compiled a team-high 24 singles wins this year. Prousis has taken six of her last seven matches, while putting together a 7-3 record this spring.

The Jackets enter the match with a 7-1 record on the season after they topped No. 22 Clemson last week. Tech's only loss on the season came to Texas in the USTA-ITA National Indoor Team Championships.

The Jackets are led by a pair of seniors in No. 60 Kelly Anderson and No. 74 Lyndsay Shosho, as well as sophomore All-American Kristi Miller, who is ranked sixth in the nation in singles. All three also appear in the doubles rankings, as Miller and Shosho stand 11th, Shosho and junior Alison Silverio are 47th, and Anderson combines with sophomore Whitney McCray to form the nation's 54th-ranked doubles team. Silverio also stands 27th in the nation with junior Tarryn Rudman.

Saturday's match will be just the second meeting between the two schools, with Northwestern winning the only previous matchup, 5-0, in 1994.