🎾 Kansas Tennis Defeats Arizona, 6-1

LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Kansas women’s tennis team defeated the Arizona Wildcats on Friday afternoon at the Jayhawk Tennis Center with a final score of 6-1. 

“We competed well today up and down the lineup. We played much better doubles point today and much better energy to start the match,” head coach Todd Chapman said. “I was pleased with how we came out and set the tone in singles by winning all six first sets.”

Kansas’ Malkia Ngounoue and Julia Deming came out strong in doubles and dominated Arizona’s Jelena Lukic and Kayla Wilkins on court two and came out on top with the first victory of the day with a 6-1 win. 

Kansas secured the doubles points on court one with Sonia Smagina and Vasiliki Karvouni in a 6-2 victory against Arizona’s Gitte Heynemans and Khim Igkupas. 

Going into singles, Kansas kept the momentum going with a clean sweep by Carmen Roxana Manu with a 6-0 win over Talya Zandberg in her first set and a 6-3 in her second set to secure the match at 2-0. Sonia Smagina took the Jayhawks to a 3-0 lead after defeating Kayla Wilkins on court one 6-1, 6-2. 

Malika Ngounoue clenched the lead after two hard fought sets against Arizona’s Jelena Lukic, 6-4 and 6-2 taking the Jayhawks to a 4-0 lead over Arizona. Junior Tiffany Lagarde battled it out against Gitte Heynemans in two back-and-forth sets, but came out victorious in both with scores of 6-3, 6-4 putting Kansas at 5-0. 

Arizona ended the day on the scoreboard after a 10-8 tie-breaker from Khim Iglupas putting the Wildcats on the board. The Jayhawks came away with a 6-1 victory with winning sets of 6-4, 7-5 from Vasiliki Karvouni. 

“We now need to turn our attention to getting ready for a very good OU team in a non-conference battle on Sunday,” Chapman added.

Kansas will be back in action on Sunday, when it travels to Norman, Oklahoma to take on the Sooners. The Jayhawks will return home to the Jayhawk Tennis Center to host conference foe Iowa State on February 27.