April 29, 2000

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-- The second-seeded University of Illinois women's tennis team lost to the defending Big Ten champion Northwestern Wildcats 4-1 today at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The third-seeded Wildcats won two doubles matches and three singles matches to secure the Big Ten Women's Tennis Championships semifinal victory.

"It was a hard-fought match," said head coach Sujay Lama. "Give credit to Northwestern. They played a solid match. We had opportunities, but when it came down to it Northwestern got the big points. We'll keep our fingers crossed to get into (NCAA) regionals."

Brooke Ferney got the Illinois point at No. 3 singles. She beat Colleen Cheng 6-0, 6-1. Northwestern took the other three completed matches. At No. 2 singles, Shannon Duffy defeated Simone Kung 6-1,6-2. Natascha Loebnitz lost to Lia Jackson 6-3,6-3 at No. 4. In the No. 5 position, Carla Rosenberg was defeated 6-2,6-3 by Marine Piriou. The No. 1 singles match between Eldina Fazlic and Katherine Nasser and the No. 6 match between Natalia Manasova and Jennifer Lutgert were abandoned because Northwestern already had the four points necessary to win the match.

All three doubles pairs had early leads on the Wildcats, but Northwestern proved to be too tough. In the No. 1 spot, Katherine Nasser and Colleen Cheng defeated Brooke Ferney and Natascha Loebitz by an 8-6 margin. Simone Kung and Michelle Web lost 8-4 to Lia Jackson and Marine Piriou in the No. 2 position. The No. 3 match between Illinois' Natalia Manasova and Carla Rosenberg and Northwestern's Shannon Duffy and Leigh Weinraub was abandoned.

The Illini will wait to see if they are one of the teams selected to the NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament. The pairings will be announced on Thursday.

No. 1: Eldina Fazlic vs. Katherine Nasser - abandoned
No. 2: Simone Kung lost to Shannon Duffy 6-1, 6-2
No. 3: Brooke Ferney def. Colleen Cheng 6-0, 6-1
No. 4: Natascha Loebnitz lost to Lia Jackson 6-3, 6-3
No. 5: Carla Rosenberg lost to Marine Piriou 6-2, 6-3
No. 6: Natalia Manasova vs. Jennifer Lutgert - abandoned

No. 1: Ferney/Loebnitz lost to Nasser/Cheng 8-6
No. 2: Kung/Michelle Webb lost to Jackson/Piriou 8-4
No. 3: Manasova/Rosenberg vs. Duffy/ Leigh Weinraub - abandoned