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Wildcats ready to rule all the way
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Northwestern Women's Tennis Coach Claire Pollard
The Northwestern women have been ranked No. 1 in the country since the beginning of the season and they are deserving of their place at the top. They have been dominating the Big Ten for years and are now showing the rest of the country what they have.
In February, the Wildcats made history when they took the USTA/ITA National Women's Team Championship. It was the first title in that event by any Big Ten university (in 2008 they had become the first in the league to make the finals, losing to Georgia Tech, 4-2). And their conference hold is continuing. This week the Wildcats took pride in snapping Michigan's 27 match home winning streak. It brought them to 15-1 for the season, the only loss coming to Duke late February at a score of 4-3.
The Northwestern women had the best season in the program's history for 2007-08. They finished second nationally to UCLA, only one point behind the NCAA winners. Coach Claire Pollard's tenth year was capped with her 300th win, coming in April after a 6-1 victory over Indiana. Assistant Coach David Mullins, who had helped lead the Wildcat women to a 30-0 Big Ten record, left this summer to become a head coach at the University of Oklahoma. They have replaced him with LTA National Training Coach Jackie Holden. The relationship between Holden and Claire Pollard goes back to Mississippi State, where the two were the 1989 NCAA Doubles champions.
Aside from Mullins, only recent graduate Suzie Matzenauer has left the team, replaced with the addition of two highly-touted freshmen, Stacey Lee and Elena Chernyakova. (Lee is currently boasting a 12 match winning streak in singles.) The team is led my Maria Mosolova, last year's ITA National Player to Watch, who is the No. 2 player in the country. Junior Lauren Lui, sophomore Samantha Murray and a trio of seniors (Nazlie Ghazal, Keri Robison and Georgia Rose) have all proven themselves on the court and garnered rankings.
Despite the top ranking and accolades, Coach Pollard believes there is still a tough road ahead, "It seems like everyone has improved. There are so many good teams this year I am just grateful we return so many great players or it would be really difficult to hang. Clemson, Baylor, California, Florida, Georgia, Stanford, Duke and USC really come to mind but I know they'll be a few others who really step up and this is what is making women's college tennis really wide open and exciting."
At the end of the month the Wildcat women will head to Madison, Wisconsin, and attempt to win their 11th consecutive Big Ten Championship. After that it's preparation for the possible biggest prize of all, "We are trying to keep our expectations process orientated," says Coach Pollard. "We are certainly excited at the prospect of how this team will shape up as the year goes on but we are trying to focus on being a great team this year believing this will give us as edge when the NCAA's roll around." Before that happens, though, there will be a big challenge this weekend as the Wildcat women return to Evanston third-ranked Notre Dame.
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