RCW: Inside Tennis 3.35

Get a quick look inside your favorite Kansas Jayhawk programs each week with Rock Chalk Weekly’s Inside Sports pages. Notable statistics, quick hits and the top social media posts get every Jayhawk fan up-to-speed and ready for another week of thrilling competition.
 Number BY THE NUMBERS
The number of wins the Kansas women’s tennis team finished with in the 2016-17 season.
 

Follow FOLLOW
Twitter @KansasTennis
Instagram kansastennis 

Notes QUICK HITS

• Returning to the NCAA Tournament for back-to-back years, the then-No. 34 Jayhawks faced then-No. 32 Notre Dame in the first round of play in Columbus, Ohio.
• Limited to five available players, due to freshman Maria Toran Ribes’ injury, Kansas forfeited the No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles spots. With Notre Dame winning the doubles point, the Irish quickly went up 2-0.
• No. 77-ranked sophomore Anastasia Rychagova came out strong, winning her first set, 6-0, at the No. 1 position against No. 101-ranked Monica Robinson. Rychagova stayed tough throughout the second set, winning 6-4, to put the Jayhawks on the board.
• Playing up at the No. 5 spot, freshman Tatiana Nikolaeva defeated her opponent to tie the match, 2-2. In her opening season as a Jayhawk, Nikolaeva tallied a 20-14 singles record, including a 3-2 mark since moving into the No. 5 position.
• Senior Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum dropped her match and Notre Dame took a 3-2 lead. Sophomore Nina Khmelnitckaia gutted out a win at the No. 4 spot to, once again, tie the match, 3-3. Khmelnitckaia ended her sophomore season with an 18-9 overall singles mark and a 22-14 doubles record, including an impressive 21-10 record with Bernard-Feigenbaum.
• With the match on the line, it was down to Janet Koch and Allison Miller at the No. 3 spot. After her first set fell short, Koch cruised to a 6-1 second-set win, but ultimately dropped the match, as KU suffered a 4-3 first round NCAA loss for the second-straight year.
• Up next, the No. 35-ranked doubles team of Bernard-Feigenbaum and Khmelnitckaia will travel to Athens, Georgia, where they will take part in the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championship during the week of May 24-29.
• After earning an at-large berth, the duo will be the first Jayhawks to participate since 1998.