RCW: Inside Tennis 3.37

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 Number BY THE NUMBERS
The number of wins the Kansas women’s tennis team earned during the 2016-17 season.
 

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Notes QUICK HITS

  • In late February, the Jayhawks broke into the top-25 at No. 14, earning a program-best ranking since the ITA moved to weekly rankings in 2000. Prior to the week-by-week list, Kansas ended the 1994 season as the No. 7-ranked team.
  • After entering the polls at No. 14, KU spent seven-consecutive weeks in the top-25 and ended the season as the No. 39 team in the nation.
  • Overall, 16 of Kansas’ 22 opponents were ranked among the top-50 at some point in the season. Throughout Big 12 Conference play, KU was ranked with six other league opponents.
  • Senior transfer Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum became the first Jayhawk in league history to be named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. She was also named to the All-Big 12 Doubles Second Team with partner sophomore Nina Khmelnitckaia.
  • Sophomore Anastasia Rychagova was named to the 2017 All-Big 12 Singles First Team and the Academic All-Big 12 First Team. Khmelnitckaia was a member of the Academic All-Big 12 Second Team.
  • Freshmen Tatiana Nikolaeva and Maria Toran Ribes competed at the Little Rock Invitational in September where they earned four-straight and three-straight wins, respectively, to claim the title of Co-Champions of Flight C Singles.
  • Champion of Flight A Singles at the Little Rock Invitational, Rychagova began spring play as the No. 65-ranked singles player in the nation. Rychagova remained in the rankings each week of the season, ending as the No. 67-ranked individual.
  • Senior Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum cracked into the top-125 when she was named the No. 122-ranked player during the week of March 21 after earning a career-best win over Texas Tech’s No. 40-ranked Felicity Maltby with a 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-3) victory.
  • Bernard-Feigenbaum and Khmelnitckaia won five-straight before falling in the title match at the ITA Central Regional in October. The duo first entered the doubles rankings on February 8 as the No. 19-ranked team in the nation, marking the highest ranking of their careers. The pair fell out of the rankings during the week of February 21, but earned their way back in and remained in the top-50 for the remainder of the season, ending as the No. 28-ranked tandem.
  • In March, the Jayhawks defeated No. 22 TCU for the first time in program history with a 4-1 victory.
  • Kansas was selected for the NCAA Championship in back-to-back years after 2016’s berth broke a 17-year drought.
  • Bernard-Feigenbaum and Khmelnitckaia became the first Jayhawks to earn an at-large berth to the Division I Women’s Tennis Championship for the first time since 1998. The duo earned a career-best win against a ranked opponent in Mississippi State’s No. 2 ranked Jasmine Lee and Lisa Marie Rioux, 3-6, 6-4, 10-8. 

 

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