Kansas Tennis Begins Spring Season at Hawai'i Invitational

Jan. 11, 2012

HONOLULU—Led by doubles pair Monica Pezzotti and Paulina Los, the University of Kansas women’s tennis team travels to Honolulu for the Rainbow Wahine Spring Invitational Jan. 12 – 14. KU will be joined by hosts Hawai’i, Washington State and Kentucky.

The tournament marks the first competition for Kansas in the spring season. Junior Pezotti and sophomore Los racked up an impressive 10-1 record during the fall season, including a seven-match winning streak to end 2011. The duo, ranked No. 42 in the Campbell/ITA Preseason Rankings, tallied two Big 12 victories during the streak over opponents from Iowa State and Kansas State.

Last spring, the Jayhawks finished the season with a 9-13 dual match record.

Scouting the Opponents

The Hawai’i Rainbows enter the tournament with a 1-1 spring record after splitting last week’s matches with a 4-3 win over Penn State and a 5-2 loss to No. 6 Baylor. Hawai’i’s Xenia Suworowa, a sophomore from Berlin, Germany, led UH winning 3-of-4 matches on the week.

As with KU, the invitational will be the first spring competition for both Washington State and Kentucky. UK returns six players from last year’s team that posted a 5-20 record and finished in sixth place in the SEC East. The 34th-ranked doubles team of Jessica Stiles and Khristina Blajkevitch will lead the charge for the Wildcats.

Washington State went 12-10 last season, with Liudmila Vasilieva leading the way. Vasilieva, a junior from Yekaterinburg, Russia, is ranked No. 101 in the preseason ITA polls, while teammate, freshman Elizaveta Luzina enters the spring ranked No. 123.

Pairings and times are still to be determined. Please check back with kuathletics.com for more information and for complete results from the three-day tournament.