April 24, 2007

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Freshman Samantha Murray (Altrincham, England/Altrincham Grammar) has been named Big Ten Player of the Week for the second time this season. The honor is the fifth for NU this season.

The fifth-ranked Wildcats, who captured their seventh regular-season title in nine seasons, are hunting for their ninth-consecutive Big Ten Championship.

Murray cruised to two straight-set wins against Ohio State and Michigan State last week. Murray moved up to the No. 1 spot in the place of 11th-ranked Georgia Rose (Mettawa, Ill./North Shore Country Day), who was out of the lineup.

The freshman topped OSU's Julie Blackmore, 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday before topping MSU's Christine Bader, 6-2, 7-5 on Sunday. In doubles, Murray and partner Alexis Conill (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) extended their winning streak to five with wins over DiPastina/Keesey of Ohio State and Bader/Milliken of MSU at No. 3.

Murray won the first weekly award given out by the conference this season. Rose has also won Player of the Week honors twice and freshman Lauren Lui (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid) won the honor on 2/28.

NU takes on the winner of eighth-seeded Penn State and ninth-seeded Michigan State at 10 a.m. Friday. The 'Cats won 7-0 bouts over both potential opponents.