Wildcat women crush Northwestern

Karen C. Tully Arizona Daily Wildcat UA sophomore Karen Goldstein won her fourth-straight singles match to help the Wildcats beat Northwestern with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Laura Guignon.

Aside from defeating Northwestern, 8-1, Arizona (12-5 overall, 2-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division) found out how important it is to get the mind ready for a match.

"The team learned that if you're prepared you play well," UA head coach Becky Bell said. "We had probably the best week of practice this past week. We were ready to play today, no matter who our opponent was."

Northwestern (7-7) may not have been one of the Wildcats' toughest matches, but Arizona was careful not to overlook them.

"We tried to stay focused because they are supposed to be the underdogs and we were supposed to crush them, so we just go out there and get the job done as well as we could," UA senior Stephanie Sammaritano said.

Senior Khristen Pietrucha was the only flaw in a near-perfect afternoon. She was defeated in singles play by Katherine Nasser, 6-3, 6-2. Aside from Nasser, no other players were able to win more than three games in any singles sets.

"It was probably the best match that we've played so far this year in terms of just really coming out and from the start just dominating, and it was because we had a great week of practice," Bell said.

Sophomore Karen Goldstein won her fourth straight singles match after she defeated Laura Guignon, 6-2, 6-3.

The Wildcats had little trouble in doubles play, winning all three matches. Junior Betsy Miringoff and sophomore Monique Allegre were up 7-0 in their doubles match. Northwestern's Anna Scharfeld and Jennifer Lutgert then won four-straight games before Arizona was finally able to win that last game.

Saturday's victory improved Arizona's win streak to five matches. Their remaining matches, however, are against teams that are ranked no lower than 17.

"It's just great to have some easier matches because you get some confidence in for the bigger matches," Sammaritano said. "The teams that we played were not that tough, but they were still good competition for us because there were good players (in each of) the teams."

Regardless of their opponents' rankings, the recent victories have proven to fire up the Wildcats.

"We've got some huge matches coming up but we're ready to go," Bell said. "Bring them on."