Ten Wildcats were in action in two different states over the weekend.
Maya Loureiro continued her blazing start to her freshman year with three more singles wins this weekend as ten Wildcats were in action at the Spartan Invitational in East Lansing and the TCU Jae Foundation Fall Open in Fort Worth.
Loureiro was the only Wildcat to win three singles matches over the weekend, besting two upperclassmen over four matches at the TCU Jae Foundation Fall Open. The Orland Park native, who arrived in Evanston as the No. 65 ranked recruit in the country, improved her singles record to a ridiculous 6-1 in the young season after a 3-0 performance at the Notre Dame Invite in October.
Loureiro didn’t drop a set in her three victories over Kansas’s Meriem Ben Ezzedine, Notre Dame’s Rylie Hanford and BYU’s Elizabeth Tullis. Her one loss — her first of the season — came in a 6-4 6-1 defeat against Texas Tech’s Arina Oreschchenkoca.
Also in Texas, graduate student Britanny Lau went 2-1 on the weekend. Lau did not drop a set in her victories, taking down Oklahoma’s Emma Ghirardato 6-4, 6-2 and Kansas’s Jasmine Adams 6-3, 6-3. She lost to Wenfei Yu from Baylor in the match of the weekend 6-1, 6-7 (4-7), 1-0 (18-16), battling to the end in an absurd tiebreaker.
Kiley Rabjons had a rough weekend after her 6-1 showing (3-0 singles) at the Green and White Classic last weekend earned her Big Ten Player of the Week. Rabjons finished 0-3 in singles, losing in straight sets to the formidable Ava Catanzarite from Oklahoma and Baylor’s Sierra Berry on Friday, before falling to Kansas’ Gracie Mulville in a tiebreak. Mulville played No. 1 singles for all of 2023-24 at KU, and Rabjons’ losses should be attributed not to poor performances from the senior, but a learning curve as she is tasked with tougher competition.
Rabjohns did pick up a hard fought doubles win alongside Neena Feldman against a duo from Kansas that featured 2024 ITA Midwest Rookie of the Year Kyoka Kubo and her partner Meriem Ben Ezzedine.
Brittany Lau and Mika Dagan Fruchtman went 1-1 as a pair, while Erica Jessel and Kiley Rabjohns struggled after a great showing at the Green and White Classic a week ago, falling 6-1 to Sue Yan Tan and Elizabeth Tullis from BYU in their single match as a duo.
Jessel, a first-year ranked as the No. 57 prospect in the country, went 1-1 in her single’s matches, falling 6-3, 6-2 to Cara Jester from Oklahoma before defeating BYU’s Hiba Heni from BYU 6-4, 6-0.
In Michigan, Autumn Rabjohns, Sydney Pratt and Jennifer Riester all finished the weekend 2-1 in singles, while Jennifer Riester went 1-2. Looking ahead to Big Ten play, the ‘Cats in East Lansing went 4-3 in singles against Michigan State and Ohio State.
On the doubles side, both Pratt/A. Rabjohns and Riester/Shepherd went 2-1 on the weekend. Pratt and Rabjohns lost to a duo from DePaul on Friday 7-5 before dispatching a Butler pairing 6-1 and Eastern Michigan 6-4. Riester and Shepherd also had no trouble with pairings from Butler and Eastern Michigan, but they did drop a 7-5 battle to in-conference foes Barbora Pokorna and Nikita Vishwase from Iowa.
Northwestern will be back in action next weekend at the ITA Sectional Championships in Ann Arbor where Mika Dagan Fruchtman and Britanny Lau will compete for a doubles title. They will face Piper Charney and Emily Sartz-Lunde from Michigan in the first round.