Jayhawks kick off dual play against No. 10 Michigan

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas women’s tennis team opens its dual-play spring season against No. 10-ranked Michigan in Ann Arbor on Sunday at the Varsity Tennis Center.
 
The Jayhawks will have three ranked individuals in the lineup against the Wolverines in No. 90 Janet Koch, No. 94 Despoina Vogasari and No. 112 Nina Khmelnitckaia. During KU’s last outing at the Florida Gulf Coast University Invitational, Vogasari and Khmelnitckaia each won two of their three singles matches against Rice and South Carolina.
 
Sophomore Tatiana Nikolaeva swept all three of her singles opponents at the invite, moving her to a four-match win streak.
 
“I liked, for the majority part of this past weekend in Florida, what we saw in the competitiveness in singles,” said head coach Todd Chapman. “If we can get our doubles play cleaned up a little bit and continue to bring the same competitiveness and energy that we did in singles, then we’re excited to see where that measures up against a top-10 team.”
 
Michigan brings two nationally-ranked individuals to Sunday’s match with No. 33 Kate Fahey and No. 74 Chiara Lommer. Last season, Fahey ended with a 21-2 dual-match record, including 14-1 playing at the No. 1 spot. Lommer tallied am 18-5 mark seeing time in the No. 3, 4 and 5 positions.
 
“The biggest thing is competing as a team, as a unit, and seeing what that looks like,” said Chapman. “We intentionally scheduled a really tough team, a top-10 team in the country, on the road because we believe we have a solid team this year. We wanted to see where we were right away and put ourselves in an adverse situation. I’m really excited to see how we respond to that.”
 
First serve between the Jayhawks and Wolverines will be at 11 a.m., CT starting with doubles and then heading into singles.
 
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