LAWRENCE, Kan – The Kansas women’s tennis won its home opener against Old Dominion, 4-3, at the Jayhawk Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon.
Kansas improves to 1-2 on the season while Old Dominion drops to 3-4. Kansas has now defeated Old Dominion for the third-straight season.
"Today was a tough battle against a really quality team. Old Dominion has established themselves as one of the better tennis programs in the country for years now, so we walk away from today’s match knowing we had to earn it. Our team has gotten better in the last couple of weeks and the goal is to continue that progression as we move forward in our schedule."
Todd Chapman, Head Coach
Kansas started the dual off strong in doubles play with a pair of victories to earn the doubles point. Kyoka Kubo and Jocelyn Massey teamed up for a quick 6-3 win over Old Dominion’s Allison Issacs and Alexandra Viktorovitch. A tight battle between Kansas’ Gracie Mulville and Heike Janse Van Vuuren versus Sofia Johnson and Lidiia Rasskouskaia forced a tiebreaker point with the Jayhawk duo taking the 7-6 (7) win. Maria Titova and Jasmine Adams’s fell in a close 7-5 loss to Kira Matushkina and Ulyana Romanova.
In singles, Kansas won three out of the six matches to secure the 4-3 win.
In the #1 singles slot, Mulville was down two points in the first set, before fighting back and tying the match 3-3. Mulville would give up the next three matches to lose set one 6-3 and was defeated 6-1 in set two.
Titova started her singles contest off with a commanding 5-0 lead in the first set, which led to a 6-1 first set win. Titova continued her strong play in the second set by defeating Issacs 6-2 on court two.
Court three went back and forth between Van Vuuren and Viktorovitch as their first set forced a tiebreaker match resulting in a 7-6 (7) win in favor of Van Vuuren. The second was also a tight competition until Van Vuuren pulled away a 6-4 victory.
Kubo kept her perfect season alive in #4 singles after dropping just one total point en route to her most dominant singles win of the season 6-1, 6-0 over Matushkina. Kubo is now 3-0 in singles so far this season.
Massey lost her first set 6-1 to Rasskouskaia before entering a back-and-forth second set resulting in a 6-4 loss.
Another close contest occurred in #6 singles between Costache and Ulyana Romanova as it was the only match of the day to go into a third set to determine its victor. After winning the first set, 6-3, Costache was defeated 6-3, 6-2 in the next two.
Kansas is back on the road for seven-straight road matches and will now travel to Santa Barbara, California, from Feb. 16-17 to face Texas Tech, Arizona and UC Santa Barbara. The Jayhawks will return to the Jayhawk Tennis Center on March 9 to take on Iowa State.
Kansas 4, Old Dominion 3
Singles
Sofia Johnson (ODU-W) def. Mulville, Gracie (KU) 6-3, 6-1
Titova, Maria (KU) def. Allison Isaacs (ODU) 6-1, 6-2
Janse Van Vuuren, H (KU) def. Alexandra Viktorovich (ODU) 7-6 (7-3), 6-4
Kubo, Kyoka (KU) def. Kira Matushkina (ODU) 6-1, 6-0
Lidiia Rasskouskaia (ODU) def. Massey, Jocelyn (KU) 6-1, 6-4
Ulyana Romanova (ODU) def. Costache, Silvia M (KU) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 Doubles competition
Doubles
Mulville, Gracie/Janse Van Vuuren, H (KU) def. Sofia Johnson/Lidiia Rasskouskaia (ODU) 7-6 (7-5)
Kubo, Kyoka/Massey, Jocelyn (KU) def. Allison Isaacs/AlexandraViktorovich (ODU) 6-3
Kira Matushkina/Ulyana Romanova (ODU) def. Titova, Maria/Adams, Jasmine (KU) 7-5
