Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Wisconsin
No. 8 Northwestern Blows By Wisconsin in Conference Opener, 6-1
2/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 18, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern's eighth-ranked women's tennis team swept doubles competition then won five of six singles matches to take a 6-1 win over No. 50 Wisconsin in its conference opener Saturday at the Combe Tennis Center.
Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) and Feriel Esseghir (Sarasota, Fla./Brickhouse Academy) got things started for the Wildcats with a win over Wisconsin's Kaylan Ciati and Morgan Tuttle at No. 2 doubles. After Wisconsin gained the advantage on match point twice, the Wildcats regained the advantage and Esseghir clinched the match with a drop shot for the 8-1 win.
NU's eighth-ranked team of Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) and Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) then clinched the doubles point for the Wildcats by beating UW's Nicole Beck and Caitlin Burke 8-4 at No. 1 doubles.
Jamie Peisel (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Country Day) and Nazlie Ghazal (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) then completed the doubles sweep for Northwestern by holding off the Badgers' Elizabeth Carpenter and Chelsea Nusslock at No. 3 doubles, 8-5.
With Northwestern holding a 1-0 lead heading into the singles portion of the match, the Wildcats promptly won four-straight matches.
Esseghir extended the Wildcats' lead to 2-0 with a dominating win over Jobe at No. 5 singles. Esseghir didn't drop a single game and took the match 6-0, 6-0.
At No. 3 singles, Rose extended Northwestern's lead to 3-0 with a straight set 6-2, 6-1 win over Caiati.
Prousis then clinched the match for the Wildcats with a win at No. 2 singles. After winning the first set handily, Prousis fended off a late charge from Beck and took the match 6-2, 6-3.
Ghazal then made it 5-0 Northwestern with a win at No. 6 singles. After playing to a 2-2 tie in the second, Ghazal rattled off four consecutive wins to record the 6-3, 6-2 victory.
At No. 1 singles, Grier edged Burke in a close straight-set decision. After rallying to win the first set, Grier came back from a 4-2 deficit to win the match 6-4, 7-5.
The Badgers got on the board when Carpenter topped Peisel at No. 4 singles. Carpenter took the first match, but Peisel toughed out a second-set win to force a third set supertiebreaker. While she went up early in the supertiebreaker, Carpenter came back to take the 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-7) win.
With the win, Northwestern moves to 7-1 on the year and has won six in a row. The Wildcats return to action at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 25 at North Carolina.
Doubles: No. 1 Grier/Prousis (NU) def. Burke/Beck (UW) 8-4 * No. 2 Esseghir/Rose (NU) def. Ciati/Tuttle (UW) 8-1 No. 3 Peisel/Ghazal (NU) def. Nusslock/Carpenter (UW) 8-5 Order of finish: 2,1,3 * Denotes doubles clincherSingles: No. 1 Cristelle Grier (NU) def. Caitlin Burke (UW) 6-4, 7-5 No. 2 Alexis Prousis (NU) def. Nicole Beck (UW) 6-2, 6-3* No. 3 Georgia Rose (NU) def. Kaylan Caiti (UW) 6-2, 6-1 No. 4 Elizabeth Carpenter (UW) def. Jamie Peisel (NU) 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-7) No. 5 Feriel Esseghir (NU) def. Erin Jobe (UW) 6-0, 6-0 No. 6 Nazlie Ghazal (NU) def. Morgan Tuttle (UW) 6-3, 6-2 Order of finish: 5,3,2,6,4,1 * Denotes match-clinching win
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