Northwestern University Team Page
URBANA, Ill. -- Northwestern's top doubles team of senior Linda Abu Mushrefova and junior Nida Hamilton saw their season come to a close as they were eliminated from the 2013 NCAA Women's Tennis Doubles Championship Thursday afternoon at Atkins Tennis Center.
Ranked 14th by the ITA, the Wildcats' pair encountered a tough draw right of the gates, falling to the second-seeded duo of Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria of USC 6-1, 6-1 in an opening-round contest.
The match concluded a third-consecutive appearance in the tournament for the team from Northwestern.
The opening set was on serve with NU trailing 2-1 and serving, but the Trojans' duo broke serve. Hamilton and Mushrefova had a break point in the ensuing game but were unable to close things out as the USC pair won the final four games of the set to take the advantage.
The Wildcats struggled to hold serve once again in the second set as Christian and Santamaria jumped out to a 4-0 advantage. Northwestern held and then had a pair of break points for the opportunity to get back in the match, but USC rallied again to hold and then broke once more to close things out.
Christian and Santamaria advance to Friday's round of 16 with the victory.
