Oct. 22, 2007

EVANSTON, Ill.-- Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day) and Samantha Murray (Altrincham, England/Altrincham Grammar) reached the finals of the Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Championships on Monday in Ann Arbor, Mich., and face each other in the finals, which has been moved to 6 p.m. on Tuesday at the Combe Tennis Center in Evanston, Ill.

Rose came in as the tournament's No. 1 seed and defeated Big Ten foes from Iowa and Minnesota before facing three-straight opponents from Notre Dame, who she dispatched with ease to reach the finals. Rose's semifinal match came against Cosmina Ciobanu of Notre Dame, who she defeated, 6-2, 6-2. She has yet to drop a set in the tournament thus far.

"I am delighted to have the final be an all Wildcat affair. Georgia and Sam played well throughout the tournament and it should be a great match tonight," coach Claire Pollard said. "I hope people can make it to the Combe Tennis Center for the 6 p.m. start."

The tournament's No. 2 seed, Murray, took a similar route to the finals as she defeated three Big Ten opponents and two from Notre Dame, while dropping just one set in five matches. In the semifinals, she beat Tania Mahtani of Michigan 6-2, 6-1 to reach the finals against Rose.

Suzie Matzenauer (Tacoma, Wash./Bellarmine) and Maria Mosolova (Moscow, Russia) also reached the tournament's round of 16, but both fell in their respective matches.

In the doubles draw, Rose also reached the finals with partner Lauren Lui (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid), but lost a close match, 9-7, to Buck and Tefft of Notre Dame. All four pairs of 'Cats doubles teams made it to the quarterfinals, while Alexis Conill (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) and Mosolova made it through to the semifinals along with Rose and Lui.