Miami Women's Tennis Team Faces No. 1 Ranked Northwestern

Story courtesy of Miami University athletic media relations

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Miami's first trip to the NCAA Tennis Tournament ended Friday afternoon as Northwestern showed why it is the nation's top-ranked team, dispatching the RedHawks 4-0 at the Vandy Christie Tennis Center. The loss snapped a 12-match winning streak for No. 72 Miami, which finished the season 16-7.

The Wildcats, 26-1 after their 18th straight victory, jumped out an early lead with a pair of 8-1 doubles wins. Stephanie Danesis and Megan Martzolf fell behind 2-0 to 24th-ranked Lauren Lui and Georgia Rose at No. 1 doubles before a break, but then dropped six straight games. At No. 3, Riekie Honiball and Brintney Larson successfully served for the first game, but did not win another in losing to Elena Chernyakova and Samantha Murray.

The unfinished match had the most intrigue. Monica Gorny and Anastasia Dracheva, winners of 12 straight at the No. 2 position, trailed 4-3 to #29 Maria Mosolova and Keri Robison on serve when the match was halted.

In singles, Northwestern opened big leads and held on to capture the match. Megan fell at No. 4 6-1, 6-0 to Lui, who is ranked 119th in the country in singles, to put the RedHawks down 2-0. Northwestern took a 3-0 lead after Robison defeated Honiball 6-2, 6-1 at No. 6.

But that's where the Miami spirit kicked in. Danesis lost the first four games of her match at No. 3 but dropped the first set 6-3. After falling behind 4-0 again in the second, she cut closed to 5-4 before No. 47 Murray closed the door.

The three unfinished matches were equally as close. At No. 1, Gorny had just dropped a 7-6 (7-5) first-set tie-breaker when the match was called. Her opponent was Maria Mosolova, currently ranked No. 1 in the nation. Dracheva lost 6-1 in her first set at No. 2, but was leading 4-3 in the second, while Larson and and Nazlie Ghazal had split the first two sets 6-1 and 2-6.