Nebraska can’t cheat its way to victory
No. 37 Northwestern women’s tennis (13-4, 4-0 B1G) has started off the Big Ten season with a bang. After a non-conference slate that saw the ‘Cats defend their home court impeccably and battle on the road against highly-rated opposition, the beginning of Big Ten play has put them back in their comfort zone.
In the opening match of the conference season, Northwestern went from strength to strength en route to a 4-0 victory over No. 75 Rutgers at the Combe Tennis Center. Justine Leong and Christina Hand, ranked 48th in the country as a doubles pairing, won 6-0 at the No. 1 spot, while a 6-4 victory for Neena Feldman and Sydney Pratt at No. 3 sealed the doubles point for NU. Pratt victories would become a theme for the weekend.
The singles portion of the match was smooth sailing for the Wildcats. Maria Shusharina took care of business at No. 1 with a 6-2, 6-3 win, and Hand followed suit shortly thereafter, winning the No. 4 match 6-3, 6-3. Pratt finished the job with another 6-3, 6-3 victory. The three remaining matches did not finish, though the Scarlet Knights held leads in two of them.
Northwestern continued its form the next day when it came back out on the same courts to face No. 49 Maryland. Feldman and Pratt were the ones to secure a bagel in their doubles set this time, and Shusharina and Britany Lau finished off the point with a 6-4 win at No. 2.
Pratt picked up where she left off from the previous day and the doubles, finishing first with a comprehensive 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 4. The junior’s dominant performances would go on to earn her Big Ten Women’s Tennis Player of the Week for the first time in her career, and her singles record stood at a remarkable 12-1 at the time.
Leong, the 108th-ranked singles player nationally, also dropped just five games at the No. 2 spot, defeating No. 77 Selma Cadar 6-1, 6-4. Shusharina clinched the victory with clutch play in a second set tiebreak, coming away with a 6-3, 7-6(4) win at No. 1. Feldman at No. 6 and Hand at No. 3 finished off dead rubber victories, while Kiley Rabjohns fell in a third-set super-tiebreak at No. 5.
Northwestern’s trip to Nebraska the following Friday was its only match against an unranked opponent of the Big Ten season so far, yet it was undoubtedly its most dramatic contest. The Cornhuskers provided a wake-up call by claiming the doubles point fairly straightforwardly with 6-3 and 6-2 victories at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions respectively.
NU responded quickly in the singles through its form players of the moment, Shusharina and Pratt. The two dropped just 10 games combined in their matches and gave the ‘Cats a 2-1 lead on the day. Nebraska’s Lucy Loy leveled the tie with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Feldman at No. 6, but Hand restored Northwestern’s lead by coming back from a set down to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 at No. 3. Having fallen narrowly short in a marathon first set, Leong was unable to recover at No. 2, losing 7-6(8), 6-4.
That left the entire match in the hands of Kiley Rabjohns, who found herself locked in a tight third set against the Cornhuskers’ Ana Zamburek at No. 5. While serving to stay in the match at 4-5, Zamburek found herself in a 0-30 hole. She fought relentlessly to drag the game back to 30-30, but immediately pulled up with an injury that could not be clearly identified. The match stopped for several minutes at this crucial stage while Zamburek received treatment from a trainer.
When she stepped back on court, Zamburek won the first point to get it to 40-30. Then, in a flash, everything changed.
In the middle of a tense, passive rally, Rabjohns fired a backhand down the line which landed squarely on the left sideline for a clean winner. Zamburek instinctively raised a right finger to indicate that the ball was out but was quickly overruled by the chair umpire. After a brief discussion with NU coach Claire Pollard, the umpire handed down a code violation against Zamburek for cheating, giving Rabjohns the deuce point and thus the match. Northwestern players rushed the court before the full announcement had been verbalized, marking a win in the most bizarre of circumstances.
Two days later, the ‘Cats traveled to Iowa City to face No. 75 Iowa. They claimed the doubles point with a 6-2 win from Feldman and Pratt at No. 3 and a 6-4 win from Hand and Leong at No. 1.
The singles matches largely proceeded at a rapid pace, with blowouts on several courts. Hand won 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 3 spot, while Lau thrashed her opponent 6-2, 6-0 at No. 6. Leong came out on the wrong side of a similarly dominant scoreline at No. 2 — going down 6-0, 6-2 — but Shusharina finished the job with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over her fellow No. 1. Pratt and Rabjohns did not finish.
No. 60 Northwestern men’s tennis came into the Big Ten season on a five-match losing streak, during which they had not even won a single individual match — singles or doubles. That trend continued on a trip to No. 1 Ohio State, who swatted the ‘Cats aside with ease, 4-0.
Gleb Blekher and Felix Nordby lost at No. 1 doubles 6-2, while the No. 3 pairing of Saiprakash Goli and Chad Miller went down 6-3. The singles proved even more of a lost cause for NU, who came up against four OSU players ranked as top 25 college singles players.
Presley Thieneman succumbed to No. 25 Justin Boulais 6-1, 6-3 at the No. 1 position, Goli lost 6-2, 6-0 to No. 12 JJ Tracy at the No. 3 spot, and Gleb Blekher’s loss to No. 22 Cannon Kinglsey at No. 2 sealed the deal. The other three matches did not finish.
However, the ‘Cats’ ignominious run came to an end two days later as they came back to beat Penn State on the road. The match started just as the previous six had, with Northwestern losing the doubles point. In this instance, it was a heartbreaking 7-6(5) loss by Goli and Miller at No. 3 that decided the point after the No. 1 and No. 2 sets were split.
The Nittany Lions took a 2-0 lead after Thieneman lost 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1. It was his sixth straight singles loss after five straight wins prior. Nordby pulled one back for the ‘Cats, winning 6-4, 6-4, at No. 4 to give NU its first match win since February 11th. And like London buses, after waiting weeks for a single win, several more started flowing in promptly.
At No. 3, Goli rallied from the disappointment of losing a tight first set to roll through the next two, winning 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. Blekher found himself on the verge of a straight-set victory at No. 2 but ultimately had to do it the hard way, grinding out a gritty 6-2, 6-7(7), 6-4 win. Miller’s clinching victory at No. 6 was almost as grueling, though the 6-3, 6-2 scoreline doesn’t reflect it.
It was an absolutely crucial victory for the Wildcats, who are back at the Combe Tennis Center this weekend with matches against No. 40 Michigan and No. 18 Michigan State, as well as a final non-conference clash against Chicago State. Women’s tennis tries to keep up its stellar season on Saturday when it visits No. 41 Illinois.