North by Northwestern

Sixteen straight Big Ten champs for women's tennis

By Daniel Hersh

The Combe Tennis Center stands were filled to the brim with loud and enthusiastic fans Sunday for the women’s tennis Big Ten Championship. And in front of that crowd, the ‘Cats came out on top, extending their streak to 16 straight Big Ten championships.

It was all tied up for the final match of the day between No. 41 Belinda Niu and Michigan’s No. 22 Ronit Yurovsky.

Niu won a quick first set, then lost a highly contested second before losing the third. In the final set, Niu came back from an early deficit and won four straight games to seal the title.

At one point, Michigan was up 3-1, but the Wildcats won three straight matches to win 4-3.

It was tight from the beginning, with the doubles point coming down to a tiebreaker.

All but one match came down to the third set, and of those, three of the five were decided by two games or less. The ‘Cats seemed to feed off the energy in the stands, especially down the stretch.

The ‘Cats now haven’t lost a match since the last time they played Michigan on April 5. They’ll finish the year with a 19-6 overall record, going 10-1 in conference play.

Seniors Belinda Niu and Veronica Corning and sophomore Alicia Barnett were all named to the All-Big Ten first team. They’ll be tested when the team heads to the NCAA Tournament, who’s first round will be held May 9-10.

Men's tennis eliminated from Big Tens

By Ben Sanders

Sometimes, it’s just a matter of getting out-played. That’s exactly what happened to No. 32 Northwestern men’s tennis when they were eliminated 4-0 by No. 2 Ohio State, the No. 1 seed, in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals in East Lancing, Mich.

Four matches went unfinished, as the Buckeyes received one point for their team by winning two of three doubles matches, and received three points for their three singles victories.

The lone bright spot for NU was the second doubles matchup between freshman Sam Shropshire and junior Alex Pasareanu against OSU’s Herkko Pollanen and Kevin Metka. When the match was called the score was tied 7-7. It was the only matchup that OSU didn’t win, or was winning, when OSU was declared the winner.

The ‘Cats season isn’t quite over yet, as they still await their bid to the 2014 NCAA Championships, which will be announced on April 29. Last year they advanced to the second round of the tournament, before falling to three-seeded Georgia.