Jayhawks Blast Iowa State on Senior Day to Finish Fifth in Big 12
April 20, 2008
Big 12 Championships Bracket
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<?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>LAWRENCE, Kan. — Senior Day for Elizaveta Avdeeva, Lauren Hommell and Stephanie Smith could not have been scripted any better as the University of Kansas locked up a fifth-place finish in the Big 12 with a dominating 7-0 victory over IowaState on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Lawrence.
KU finishes the regular season with a record of 9-12, 5-6 in league play. By virtue of Colorado’s win over OklahomaState on Sunday and head-to-head victories over OSU and Nebraska, the Jayhawks have earned the No. 5 seed in next week’s Big 12 Championships. It marks the best finish in the regular-season conference standings for Kansas since it went 9-2 in the 2001-02 campaign.
The three seniors went a combined 5-0 in singles and doubles play on Sunday. Highlighting the afternoon was a victory by KU’s No. 1 doubles tandem of Avdeeva and junior Edina Horvath, which made Avdeeva Kansas’ all-time winningest Big 12 doubles player. The Obninsk, Russia native’s victory — which fittingly came in her final career match in Lawrence — gave her 23 career league doubles wins, surpassing former Jayhawk Julia Sidorova’s total of 22.
Hommell also completed a successful doubles season with teammate Kunigunda Dorn as the pair defeated ISU’s Alysa Palen and Caitlin Loprinzi in the No. 2 slot, 8-4, to improve to 6-5 in conference play.
Junior Yuliana Svistun and freshman Magdalena Tokarczyk won convincingly in the No. 3 contest as well, giving KU its second-straight doubles sweep.
Singles was dominated by the Jayhawks as well with five of the six matches going to KU in straight sets. In her home finale, Hommell improved her dual-match record to an impressive 10-5 with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over the Cyclones’ Reka Kelemen in the No. 5 position.
The only contest to go three sets was the No. 6 slot, where Smith dropped the first set to IowaState’s Chrissy Derouin, putting the Salina, Kan., native in danger of losing her final home match. However, Smith battled back to win the second set in a tiebreaker and then took the third in a match-buster set to seal the victory and a clean sweep for the Jayhawks.
Also picking up singles wins on Sunday were Tokarczyk at No. 1, Horvath in the No. 3 position and Svistun in the No. 4 match.
Horvath, a Budapest, Hungary, native, finishes the regular season with a team-high 11 singles wins in dual match play, followed closely by Hommell, Dorn and Svistun, who each tallied 10. Avdeeva and Horvath made up Kansas’ top doubles tandem, recording a team-best 13 victories in dual action.
The Jayhawks will open up play in the Big 12 Championships on Thursday in College Station, Texas, where they will again face IowaState. The dual is set to begin at 10 a.m.
Results
Doubles
1) Avdeeva/Horvath (KU) def. Hickey/Derouin (ISU), 8-4*
2) Hommell/Dorn (KU) def. Palen/Loprinzi (ISU), 8-4
3) Svistun/Tokarczyk (KU) def. Wischer/Kelemen (ISU), 8-1
*Match Note: Avdeeva becomes KU’s all-time leader in Big 12 doubles victories.
Singles
1) Magdalena Tokarczyk (KU) def. Kara Hickey (ISU), 6-0, 6-3
2) Elizaveta Avdeeva (KU) def. Caitlin Loprinzi (ISU), 6-2, 6-2
3) Edina Horvath (KU) def. Alysa Palen (ISU), 6-3, 6-0
4) Yuliana Svistun (KU) def. Liza Wischer (ISU), 6-1, 6-0
5) Lauren Hommell (KU) def. Reka Kelemen (ISU), 6-0, 6-4
6) Stephanie Smith (KU) def. Chrissy Derouin (ISU), 2-6, 7-6 (4), 1-0 (6)
