The Wildcats took care of business against their Midwestern opponents.
Northwestern tennis had a dominant weekend as both the women’s and men’s teams picked up two wins apiece against overmatched neighbors from Illinois and Wisconsin.
The Northwestern women’s tennis team bounced back from a difficult weekend at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships with a 5-2 and 7-0 victories over UIC and Milwaukee. The doubleheader on Sunday awarded head coach Claire Pollard her 600th career win.
In the first match of the day, the Wildcats jumped off to an early start against UIC by picking up the doubles’ point behind wins from the Erica Jessel-Sydney Pratt duo, and Neena Feldman and Kiley Rabjohns.
In the singles portion of the event, Northwestern continued its earlier success with four straight set victories. Jessel, Pratt, Feldman and Rabjohns all finished 2-0 on the day to top the ‘Cats over the top.
Jessel and Pratt won their matchups in two straight sets on the No. 1 and No. 2 courts, winning 6-4, 6-1, and 6-1, 6-3, respectively. Feldman and Rabjohns won in two straight sets as well on courts No. 3 (6-3, 6-3) and No. 4 ( 6-1, 6-3). UIC had a pair of singles victories, but ultimately, the ‘Cats came away with a decisive 5-2 victory.
The evening match against Milwaukee followed a similar trend. Northwestern picked up the doubles point with a 6-0 win from Feldman and Rabjohns and a 6-1 victory from Britany Lau and Katrya Shepherd Johnson on the No. 3 court. The ‘Cats did not drop a set on the six singles’ courts on the way to a squeaky clean 7-0 W.
The men had similar luck the day before, defeating both Illinois State and IU Indy by a margin of 7-0.
The Wildcats surged off to a hot start against Illinois State by securing the doubles point with the help of duos Chad Miller and Saiprakash Goli and Carter Pate and Vincent Yang who won their matches 7-5 and 6-4, respectively.
On the singles side, the Wildcats won all six matches with ease. Max Bengtsson won 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 5 slot, Felix Nordby won 6-1, 7-5, and Miller provided match point at 6-4, 6-1 on the No. 6 court. Goli, Greyson Casey and Pater also secured victories to complete the sweep.
A few hours later, the Wildcats continued their perfect dominance. NU started off by securing the doubles point against the Jaguars — this time, with the help of team Nordby and Casey and team Miller and Goli. The latter of which pulled off a comeback.
Miller, Pate and Nordby clinched the singles portion, with Bengtsson, Casey and Jackson Caldwell contributing victories as well.
The women will host Vanderbilt on Friday and then head to Kansas on Sunday, while the men will stay in Evanston to play Memphis on Friday and Notre Dame on Sunday.