April 8, 2016
EVANSTON, Ill. ââ'¬" No. 38 Northwestern proved to be too much for Purdue, dealing the women's tennis team a 7-0 loss Friday at the Combe Tennis Center. The shutout is only the second loss of the season in which the Boilermakers (9-10, 2-4 B1G) failed to get on the scoreboard. The Wildcats (8-8, 6-0 B1G) maintained their spot at the top of the Big Ten standings with the win.
In doubles, Northwestern jumped out in front with a 6-2 victory from their No. 2 team of Alicia Barnett and Brooke Rischbieth over Krisztina Kapitany and Marta Ruedas-Burgos.
The fight for the dual's first point was evened thanks to an upset at the top. The 60th-ranked Boilermaker duo of Nicole Robinson and Andjela Djokovic completed a 6-4 upset of No. 25 Alex Chatt and Maddie Lipp. It's the second win over a top-25 foe in three matches played for the tandem of juniors.
The point came down to a back-and-forth match at No. 3 between Purdue's Claudia Escribens and Natalia Davila versus Jillian Rooney and Erin Larner. A breaker was forced, but it went the Wildcats' way, 7-6 (4), allowing NU to go into singles action leading 1-0.
Half of the singles matches were claimed by Northwestern in straight sets, while the other half were played out to a third. Nos. 3 to 5 were pushed to a decisive set. Djokovic and Davila each rebounded in the second stanza after dropping the opener at Nos. 3 and 4, respectively, for the Boilermakers.
Purdue looks to bounce back from the loss on Sunday at No. 50 Illinois. Action is set to get underway from the Atkins Tennis Center at 1 p.m. ET.