No. 16 Jayhawks sweep West Virginia, 4-0
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 16 Kansas women’s tennis team earned its fourth-straight win after defeating West Virginia, 4-0, Sunday at the Summit Tennis Academy.
After tallying two wins over the weekend, the Jayhawks are now 13-4 on the season and 5-1 in Big 12 Conference play. In its last 13 matches, KU has claimed 12 doubles points.
No. 83 Nina Khmelnitckaia and Tatiana Nikolaeva were the first to finish their match, defeating Christina Jordan and Sofia Duran at the No. 1 spot, 6-2.
Following with their own 6-2 victory, the Jayhawks’ duo of Despoina Vogasari and Maria Toran Ribes topped Giovanna Caputo and Anne-Sophie Courteau on court three. This win marked six-straight for the pair and put Kansas up, 1-0, in the match.
“The team did a great job of coming out and setting a good tone in doubles,” said head coach Todd Chapman. “In singles, it took us five or six games to settle in and then we did a good job of rolling with the momentum.”
Toran Ribes took an early 5-1 lead in her first set with Paula Goetz and sealed the victory at 6-2 on court four. She then blanked the Mountaineer in the second set for a 6-2, 6-0 win and moved the Kansas lead to 2-0.
No. 66 Vogasari was matched point-for-point by Jordan at the No.1 position where Vogasari came out on top, 6-3, in the first set. The Jayhawk showed her dominance in the second set, winning it, 6-0, for her eighth-straight singles victory and extending the KU lead to 3-0.
At the No. 2 spot, Janet Koch and Courteau went back-and-forth in the beginning of their first set before Koch pulled away from a 3-3 tie to take it, 6-3. Leading throughout the second set, Koch clinched the match for her team with a 6-3, 6-4 win.
Competing on court three, No. 116 Khmelnitckaia cruised to a 6-2 first-set victory against Lyn Yuen Choo. Khmelnitckaia and Choo’s second set was stopped at 3-3 with the match being claimed at the No. 2 position.
Koch and Amber Policare’s No. 2 doubles match against Lyn Yuen Choo and Paula Goetz went unfinished with the match tied at 3-3 after the doubles point had been won. Nikolaeva and Policare did not have a chance to start their singles matches due to only four courts being available and the match being clinched.
Up next, the Jayhawks will return to Lawrence before heading to Manhattan, Kansas to face Kansas State at 1 p.m., Sunday, April 15.
KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.
