COLLEGE PARK, Md. \u2014 No. 57-ranked Northwestern closes out the regular season on the road, facing No. 45 Maryland in College Park, Md. on Friday, April 17, at 1 p.m. CT and Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J. on Sunday, April 19, at 11 a.m. CT.<\/p>\n
This past weekend, the Wildcats (13-10, 5-6 Big Ten) closed their weekend by sweeping Chicago State 4-0 after suffering setbacks to No. 10 USC and No. 16 UCLA. Against the Cougars, Northwestern won 48-of-50 (96.0%) games in completed matches. After claiming the doubles point, first-year Marelie Raath<\/a> secured a 6-0, 6-0 victory, junior Katya Shepherd Johnson<\/a> won 6-1, 6-0, and junior Neena Feldman<\/a> clinched the match with a 6-0, 6-0 result.<\/p>\n Erica Jessel<\/a> and Margot Phanthala<\/a> are now the No. 38-ranked doubles team in the nation, the seventh-highest ranked duo in the Big Ten. The pairing is 9-5 on the season, with four wins over ranked doubles teams. They are 7-4 at the No. 1 slot, the most wins by a Northwestern duo since the 2024 dual season, when Maria Shusharina<\/a> and Britany Lau<\/a> had 18 wins together. Jessel and Phanthala’s nine total wins are the most by any Wildcat duo this season.<\/p>\n Phanthala, who has played all of her matches at the No. 1 singles position this season, is ranked as the ITA’s No. 91 singles player in the country, the 17th-ranked player in the Big Ten. She is the first Northwestern player to crack the top 100 in the singles rankings since April 1, 2025, when Sydney Pratt<\/a> was ranked No. 99. Additionally, she is the second-highest-ranked first-year in the conference. She is the first Wildcat first-year to be ranked in the top 100 since April 14, 2021, when Shusharina was ranked No. 91. She has seven singles wins at the No. 1 position, the most by a Northwestern first-year at No. 1 singles since at least 2019. Phanthala is the first Northwestern player to be ranked in the top 100 in singles and part of a top 50 doubles team since Justine Leong<\/a> held the No. 88 singles spot and No. 39 doubles position on April 2, 2024.<\/p>\n Autumn Rabjohns<\/a> \u2014 primarily playing at No. 3 singles \u2014 is tied for the most singles wins on the team with 12. She holds a 12-5 record, with four of her five losses coming to the nationally-ranked players. In addition, nine of Rabjohns’ 12 wins have come with her dropping just five games or fewer. She has the best win percentage on the team in singles (70.6%). Sophomore Mika Dagan Fruchtman<\/a> is tied with Rabjohns with 12 singles wins (12-8), surpassing her total wins from last season (2-12) by sixfold.<\/p>\n