Oklahoma State Knocks Kansas Out of Big 12 Semifinals, 4-0
| #14 Oklahoma State 4, #33 Kansas 0 Greenwood Tennis Center April 30, 2016 |
| Doubles |
| No. 1 – Maria Alvarez/Kelsey Laurente (OSU) vs. Nina Khmelnitckaia/Janet Koch (KU) 4-4 unfinished |
| No. 2 – Viktoriya Lushkova/Carla Tur Mari (OSU) def. Maria Jose Cardona/Anastasiya Rychagova (KU) def. 6-2 |
| No. 3 – Katarina Adamovic/Vladica Babic (OSU) win by forfeit |
| Order of Finish: 3,2 |
| Singles |
| No. 1 – Anastasiya Rychagova (KU) vs. Katarina Adamovic (OSU) 4-6, 2-2 unfinished |
| No. 2 – Smith Hinton (KU) vs. Vladica Babic (OSU) 3-6, 1-3 |
| No. 3 – Viktoriya Lushkova (OSU) def. Janet Koch (KU) 6-2, 6-2 |
| No. 4 – Kelsey Laurente (OSU) def. Nina Khmelnitckaia (KU) 6-0, 6-3 |
| No. 5 – Maria Jose Cardona (KU) vs. Katarina Stresnakova (OSU) 2-6, 4-2 |
| No. 6 – Carla Tur Mari (OSU) win by forfeit |
| Order of Finish: 6,3.4 |
LAWRENCE, Kan. — For the second time in less than a week, Kansas women’s tennis went up against the top team in the Big 12 Conference, Oklahoma State, and unfortunately for the Jayhawks, the results were the same. OSU took advantage of KU’s short-handed lineup and advanced to the 2016 Big 12 Championship finals with a 4-0 win over the Jayhawks Saturday afternoon on their homecourt, the Greenwood Tennis Center.
“I think a couple of things were different today,” said Kansas head coach Todd Chapman. “We definitely got OSU’s best shot. Between the way we played last Sunday and yesterday, I think they knew they would have to play well and they did. They played extremely well. They put us in a lot of uncomfortable positions and I don’t think we handled those positions with the same composure as we have in the past. When you are playing a good team, one of the best teams in the country, and you don’t stay composed in those situations, you are going to get beat. We got beat by a better team today.”
No. 33 Kansas (17-7, 6-3 Big 12), who has been playing much of the last month with just five players due to illness, was not able to overcome the 15th-ranked Cowgirls (23-4, 9-0 Big 12), while making its first appearance in the conference semifinals since 2002. Kansas dropped the doubles point to the Cowgirls, as senior Maria Jose Cardona and freshman Anastasiya Rychagova fell 6-2 to OSU’s Viktoriya Lushkova and Carla Tur Mari on court two.
Kansas’ freshman duo of Nina Khmelnitckai and Janet Koch were tied at 4-4 with Oklahoma State’s Maria Alvarez and Kelsey Laurente on court one, but with the Jayhawks unable to field a doubles team on court three, OSU captured the doubles point.
The Jayhawks entered singles play down trailing OSU, 2-0, as they were forced to forfeit on court six. Oklahoma State moved ahead 3-0 as OSU’s Lushkova topped KU’s Koch, 6-2, 6-2, on court three. The match was clinched for Cowgirls with Laurente’s, 6-0, 6-3, win over Kansas’ Khmelnitckaia on court four.
UP NEXT
Kansas will await its NCAA Championship fate as the 2016 team pairings will be announced on Tuesday, May 3 at 4 p.m. The selection show will be webcast via NCAA.com.
“We will rest up, heal up,” said Chapman, of the team’s upcoming schedule. “Hopefully we will be a little healthier for NCAA’s. We have to give the players some time for finals next week. It will be a balance of working on some specific things we saw this weekend that we need to work, getting healthy and trying to be as fresh as possible and then respecting the balance between tennis and school. We have a young group that hasn’t been through this situation before and we will navigate through it, but we have a lot to be excited about. We are excited about finding out where we will play Tuesday. We have a lot to look forward to in the next couple of weeks.”
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