Feb. 2, 2008
ATLANTA – No. 7 Kristi Miller knocked off Northwestern’s Maria Mosolova in straight sets, but it wasn’t enough to keep top-ranked Georgia Tech’s winning streak alive, as the Yellow Jackets (2-1) fell, 6-1, to the No. 7 Wildcats (3-0) Saturday night at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.
“We have to hand it to Northwestern,” said head coach Bryan Shelton. “They came in and played extremely well today and did some of the things that we were hoping to do, as far as being tough – especially in key moments such as the end of the first set and throughout the end of the match. They were just outstanding tonight.”
Miller stopped the country’s second-ranked singles player with an easy, 6-2, 6-3, win at No. 1 singles, but Tech struggled everywhere else in the lineup.
The Jackets fell behind early when Northwestern’s No. 3 doubles tandem of Mosolova and Nazlie Ghazal rallied from an 0-4 deficit to stop Noelle Hickey and Christy Striplin, 8-6, and seventh-ranked Lauren Lui and Samantha Murray defeated Miller and Kirsten Flower, 8-5, atop the doubles lineup.
After Miller tied the match at 1-1, both ninth-ranked Georgia Rose and No. 20 Murray won three-set matches at Nos. 2 and 3 singles to give the Wildcats the 3-1 edge before Suzie Matzenauer, the only unranked singles player in the lineup for either team, clinched match point with a 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 6 singles.
The loss snapped the Yellow Jackets’ winning streak at 23 matches and was the first home loss for Tech since dropping a 4-3 match to the same Wildcats team two years ago.
“We are a young team,” Shelton added. “So I hope that we can learn from this experience and get better. We still have a lot of work to do. It was great to play this type of match so early in the season to gauge what we need to work on.”
Georgia Tech will be back in action this week in an attempt to defend its first national tournament title from 2007. Draws for the National Team Indoor Championships will be announced Monday morning, and the tournament is scheduled to begin on Thursday, Feb. 7 at the University of Wisconsin. Included in the draw with the Yellow Jackets and Wildcats are three additional ACC schools (Clemson, Miami, North Carolina) as well as two other opponents that appear on Tech’s 2008 regular season schedule in Georgia and Notre Dame. Rounding out the tournament field are Arkansas, Baylor, Cal, Fresno State, USC, Stanford, UCLA, William & Mary and host Wisconsin.
Tennis Match ResultsNorthwestern vs Georgia TechFeb 02, 2008 at Atlanta, Ga.
#7 Northwestern 6, #1 Georgia Tech 1
Singles competition 1. #7 Kristi Miller (GT) def. #2 Maria Mosolova (NW) 6-2, 6-3 2. #9 Georgia Rose (NW) def. #3 Amanda McDowell (GT) 0-6, 6-2, 6-1 3. #20 Samantha Murray (NW) def. #22 Whitney McCray (GT) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 4. #68 Lauren Lui (NW) def. #6 Maya Johansson (GT) 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 5. #99 Nazlie Ghazal (NW) def. #38 Christy Striplin (GT) 6-4, 6-3 6. Suzie Matzenauer (NW) def. #56 Noelle Hickey (GT) 6-3, 6-2
Doubles competition 1. #7 Lui/Murray (NW) def. Miller/Kirsten Flower (GT) 8-5 2. McCray/McDowell (GT) def. Rose/Matzenauer (NW) 8-3 3. Ghazal/Mosolova (NW) def. Hickey/Striplin (GT) 8-6
Match Notes: Northwestern 3-0; National ranking #7 Georgia Tech 2-1; National ranking #1 Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (1,2,3,6,4,5) A-222
