March 6, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The 48th-ranked Purdue women's tennis team battled hard but was defeated 5-2 by top-ranked Northwestern on Saturday afternoon on the Basham Courts inside the Schwartz Tennis Center.
"Northwestern is a good team," head coach Laura Glitz said. "They are number one in the country for a reason, and we were able to hang in the match today. Hopefully, we can use this as a stepping stone as we prepare for Ohio State."
Purdue (9-1, 1-1) started the match by dropping the doubles point for just the second time this season. Lauren Lui and Stacy Lee earned an 8-2 victory over junior Bhavani Tirumurti and freshman Imogen Golder at No. 3 before Northwestern (11-1, 2-0) clinched the point at No. 2 when Maria Mosolova and Linda Abu Mushrefova picked up an 8-1 defeat of sophomores Anna Dushkina and Remi Martin. Senior Michelle Sammons and sophomore Jennifer Rabot suffered their first loss as a doubles team this season by dropping a hard-fought match to Samantha Murray and Elena Chernyakova 8-7 (1).
Mosolova, the 13th-ranked singles player in the NCAA, extended Northwestern's lead by putting together a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Sammons at No. 1. Golder got the Boilermakers on the scoreboard next and improved to 8-2 this season as she finished off Chernyakova 6-3, 6-1 at No. 5. Kate Turvy brought the Wildcats within one point of victory when she completed a 6-1, 6-1 win over Dushkina at No. 4. Lee clinched the match at No. 6 with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over freshman Gisella Pere.
The final two matches on court both needed three sets to determine a winner. The contest at No. 3 singles ended first with Lui outlasting Tirumurti 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. The final match, which flirted with the two-and-a-half-hour mark, was a showdown between England natives Rabot and Murray. Rabot remained undefeated and took down her second straight ranked opponent by defeating Murray, the 31st-ranked singles player in the NCAA, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5.
The loss snaps Purdue's nine-match winning streak, which is the longest in program history, and ties this year's team with the 1980 team for the best 10-match start to any season. The Boilermakers' nine straight wins bettered the eight-match winning streak earned by the 2007 squad and tripled the previous best start without a loss by a Purdue team.
Purdue played Northwestern to the closest margin of victory in the series since a 5-2 win by the Wildcats in 2003. The Boilermakers return to action Friday when they host 21st-ranked Ohio State at 1 p.m. ET.