No. 34 Kansas Battles No. 16 Arizona State but Falls, 4-1

TEMPE, Ariz. – No. 34 Kansas women's tennis battled No. 16 Arizona State but fell, 4-1, at Whiteman Tennis Center in Tempe, Arizona, Friday evening. Kansas won the doubles point and four of the six single matches went three sets with the home team prevailing.

The loss ended a Kansas two-match winning streak as KU fell to 9-8 overall and 5-3 in Big 12 play. Arizona State won its fourth-straight match improving to 14-4 (6-2 Big 12).

"Credit to Arizona State for playing really tough and gritty in singles tonight," Kansas head coach Todd Chapman said. "They didn't give us anything and we had to earn everything. Against a tough team you have to compete at every spot in the lineup and we didn't do that tonight."

Tied at 4-4, the Kansas duo of Anna Putilina and Kinley VanPelt won its final two sets against ASU's Vivian Ovrootsky and Lily Taylor to give the Jayhawks a 1-0 lead toward the doubles point.

Moments later, Kansas secured the doubles point when Heike Janse van Vuuren and Meg McCarty won the final three sets of their match en route to a 6-3 win over ASU's Emilija Tverijonaite and Aiya Nupbay. With the win, van Vuuren and McCarty improved to 8-3 on the season winning their fourth-straight doubles match.

The third doubles match went unfinished with Kansas' Kyoka Kubo and Meriem Ben Ezzedine trailing ASU's Zlata Bartanusz and Sarang Lim, 5-3.

In singles play, No. 22 Tverijonaite defeated No. 53 Kubo, 6-0, 6-2, to tie the match at 1-1. Shortly after on court five, ASU's Bartanusz defeated McCarty, 6-0, 6-1, to give the Sun Devils a 2-1 lead. On court two, KU's van Vuuren lost her first set ASU's Ovrootsky, 6-3, but battled back to take the second set, 6-1. In the third set, Ovrootsky edged van Vuuren 6-4 giving ASU a 3-1 match advantage.

Like the van Vuuren-Ovrootsky match, the remaining three matches also went to three sets. On court three, Taylor edged Ben Ezzedine, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, to secure the ASU win at 4-1. Court four had KU's Nahyeong Cho up 3-1 in the third set against Nupbay, and on court six KU's Putilina was leading Lim 4-2 in the third set with both matches going unfinished.

UP NEXT
Kansas will conclude its two-match road swing at No. 39 Arizona on Sunday, March 29, in Tucson, Arizona. The match at LaNelle Robson Tennis Center is slated to begin at 1 p.m. CT.

Results - Arizona State 4, Kansas 1
Doubles:

Putilina/VanPelt (KU) def. Ovrootsky/Taylor (ASU), 6-4
van Vuuren/McCarty (KU) def. Tverijonaite/Nupbay (ASU), 6-3
Kubo/Ben Ezzedine (KU) vs. Bartanusz/Lim (ASU), 3-5 (unf.)

Singles:

#22 Tverijonaite (ASU) def. #53 Kubo (KU), 6-0, 6-2
#118 Ovrootsky (ASU) def. van Vuuren (KU), 6-3, 1-6, 6-4
Taylor (ASU) def. Ben Ezzedine (KU), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
Cho (KU) vs. Nupbay (ASU), 3-6, 7-5, 3-1 (unf.)
Bartanusz (ASU) def. McCarty (KU), 6-0, 6-1
Putilina (KU) vs. Kim (ASU), 6-4, 2-6, 4-2 (unf.)

University of Kansas Athletics

No. 34 Kansas Battles No. 16 Arizona State but Falls, 4-1

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Players Mentioned

Meriem Ben Ezzedine

Nahyeong Cho

Heike Janse van Vuuren

Kyoka Kubo

Meg McCarty

Anna Putilina

Kinley VanPelt

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