Jayhawks Fall at Texas Tech, 4-2

#13 Texas Tech 4, #30 Kansas 2
McLead Tennis Courts
April 3, 2016
Doubles
No. 1 –  Gabriela Talaba/Alex Valenstein (TT) def. Nina Khmelnitckaia/Janet Koch (KU) 7-5
No. 2 – Maria Jose Cardona/Summer Collins (KU) def. Sarah Dvorak/Sabrina Federici (TT) 7-6 (7-4)
No. 3 –  Smith Hinton/Anastasiya Rychagova (KU) def. Lynn Kiro/Felicity Maltby (TT) 7-5
Order of Finish: 3,2,1
Singles
No. 1 – #96 Anastasiya Rychagova (KU) vs. #122 Gabriela Talaba (TT) 1-6, 7-5, 5-4 unfinished
No. 2 – Sarah Dvorak (TT) def. Smith Hinton (KU) 7-5, 7-6
No. 3 – Alex Valenstein (TT) def. Janet Koch (KU) 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
No. 4 –  Felicity Maltby (TT) def. Nina Khmelnitckaia (KU) 7-5, 6-0
No. 5 – Sabrina Federici (TT) def. Summer Collins (KU) 6-3, 6-1
No. 6 – Maria Jose Cardona (KU) def. Katelyn Jackson (TT) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
Order of Finish: 5,4,3,6,2

LUBBOCK, Texas — No. 30 Kansas women’s tennis fought hard to the end, but to no avail this afternoon in Lubbock, Texas, where they lost, 4-2, to No. 13 Texas Tech. The match drops Kansas to 12-5 on the season and 2-2 in the Big 12 conference play.

“Today was a great learning experience,” said Kansas head coach Todd Chapman. “We played ourselves into some great positions today in one of the toughest places to win a road match against one of the top teams in the country. In some of those positions we found ways to finish things off and in some we came up short. We played a tough doubles point and had the majority of the team really compete in singles. We have to learn it takes the whole team to go on the road against a tough team and come home with a win. We have a short week and we will continue to work to improve and prepare for West Virginia and Iowa State next weekend.”

Kansas was ahead early in the match after taking the doubles point with wins on courts two and three. First to finish were freshman Anastasiya Rychagova and sophomore Smith Hinton on court three with a, 7-5, win over Tech’s Lynn Kiro and Felicity Maltby. Rychagova and Hinton were up, 3-1, in the match and faced a comeback from Tech when Kiro and Maltby rallied back to bring the score to 4-5. The Jayhawks then won three games in a row to claim the win at 7-5.

On court two, senior Maria Jose Cardona and sophomore Summer Collins went back and forth with TTU’s Sarah Dvorak and Sabrina Federici until the match was even at 6-6. Cardona and Collins took the tie break to win the match, 7-6, and the doubles point for Kansas.

In singles play, Texas Tech evened up the overall score, 1-1, with a, 6-3, 6-1, win from Federici over Collins on court five. On court four, freshman Nina Khmelnitckaia was up, 4-1, in the first set until Maltby came charging back to claim a 7-5 win. Maltby kept her momentum in the second set, topping Khmelnitckaia, 7-5, 6-0, to put TTU up 2-1.

Down a point in the match, the Jayhawks looked to freshman Janet Koch to tie up the score. Koch claimed the first set of the match, but ultimately fell, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, to Tech’s Alex Valenstein on court three.

Kansas was down, but opened up the possibility for a comeback as Cardona battled back on court six for a three-set, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, win over Tech’s Katelyn Jackson.

However, it was not enough as Texas Tech picked up a win on court two, thus taking the match 4-2, On court two, Hinton fell, 7-5, 7-6, to Tech’s Dvorak, in a highly contested match.

Up Next
The Jayhawks will travel to Morgantown, W.Va., for a match at West Virginia on Friday, April 8. The dual will begin at 3 p.m.

KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.