Jayhawks to host Kansas Invitational

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas women’s tennis program will play host to five other schools for the Kansas Invitational from October 27 to 29 at the Jayhawk Tennis Center in Lawrence, Kansas.
 
Just days after being the host site for the ITA Central Regional Championships, the Jayhawks welcome Auburn, Maryland, Texas Tech, Washington and Wichita State for a weekend of competition.
 
“We’re excited about the teams we have coming in,” said head coach Todd Chapman. “They are, what I think, five top-50 teams. To bring that level of tennis into our facility speaks volumes for where the program has grown, that we can host good teams wanting to come play at our facility. It’s definitely an exciting time.”
 
At the regional tournament, senior Despoina Vogasari was the runner-up singles champion and qualified for the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships. She teamed up with sophomore Tatiana Nikolaeva and the pair made it to the doubles semifinals where they dropped their match to the No. 1 seed.
 
Juniors Janet Koch and Nina Khmelnitckaia and sophomore Maria Toran Ribes all played in the Round of 16, but each fell to their opponent.
 
“It’s a quick turnaround from this past weekend’s regional event to this event,” said Chapman. “We’ve been practicing the last few days on some of the things we noticed we need to get better at. That’s the goal – to see improvement from one week to the next. It’s a good opportunity for the girls to get out and try to be better at some of the things we maybe weren’t as good as we’d like to be at. The improvements may not be on a win or a loss, that’s not our focus right now. It’s on the development piece, that’s the goal, to see if we’re getting better.”
 
Matches will kick off with doubles at 9 a.m., Friday with singles following.
 
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