LAWRENCE, Kan. –Kansas women's tennis snapped a four-match skid on Friday afternoon by defeating No. 53 Minnesota, 5-2, at the Jayhawk Tennis Center.
Kansas improves to 4-4, while Minnesota fell to 7-3 on the year.
"It was good to come out in the win column," Kansas head coach Todd Chapman said. "I think we did a good job of using the momentum from doubles to get out and win four first sets, and I think that was really important to the overall score, and just the momentum of the match. I thought we did a good job in the end finishing matches off in tight second sets, so that was great to see. Hopefully we can rest up and get ready for a good Old Dominion team on Sunday."
The Jayhawks opened the match by taking the doubles point for the second straight match, winning courts one and two. On court two, Heike Janse van Vuuren and Meg McCarty won their second straight match by taking down Mia Liepert and Sofia Pinto, 6-2. Kansas secured the doubles point on court one, as Yerkezhan Arystanbekova and Anna Putilina defeated Arina Valitova and Nora Knezevic, 6-4.
Court three featured Kansas' Kyoka Kubo and Meriem Ben Ezzedine, but the match went unfinished with Minnesota's Jeselle Ante and Yinong Ma leading 5-3.
Minnesota took the first singles point on court one, as Ante defeated Kansas' No. 36 ranked Kubo 6-3, 6-1, to tie the match at 1-1.
Kansas responded quickly by taking the next three singles points to clinch the win. On court five, McCarty took down Anlin Xie in straight-sets, 6-2, 6-1, to improve to 4-1 on the season. Nahyeong Cho picked up her second win of the season on court six, defeating Ma 6-3, 6-2 to give Kansas a 3-1 lead. Court two was the winning point for the Jayhawks, as van Vuuren beat Aiva Schmitz in a tight 6-1, 7-6 (2) match.
Play continued on courts three and four, with Arystanbekova defeating Pinto 6-3, 7-5 to give Kansas another point. Minnesota picked up the final point on court four, as Liepert defeated Ben Ezzedine 6-2, 7-6 (9) to secure the 5-2 win for Kansas.
UP NEXT Kansas will wrap up non-conference play against Old Dominion on Sunday, February 22 at the Jayhawk Tennis Center. The match is slated to begin at 12 p.m. CT.
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