Jayhawks travel to Nashville for ITA Kick-Off Weekend
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas will travel to Nashville, Tennessee, to face Clemson January 27 at 10 a.m. in the first match of a four-team tournament for ITA Kick-Off Weekend.
After a 6-1 season-opening win over Saint Louis, the Jayhawks look to continue their winning ways on the court. With head coach Todd Chapman’s 38th win at Kansas in the books, his team is putting up impressive singles and doubles marks. Sophomore Anastasia Rychagova is on a four-match win streak with an overall record of 15-4. Senior Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum is going into the weekend with a 12-5 record and having won her last three matches. Freshmen Maria Toran Ribes and Tatiana Nikolaeva are leading the way in doubles with six-consecutive wins and a 12-5 record when paired up.
“The girls are excited to play,” said Chapman. “All four teams at this event are high quality, very good teams. We’re expecting a battle and preparing for a tough fight on Friday. Win or lose, we’ll have another great opportunity on Saturday.”
The Jayhawks will open the event with a dual-match against Clemson and will face either Virginia Tech or the host, No. 9 Vanderbilt, on Saturday. Kansas and Clemson have not faced each other in dual-match play since 1993. The Tigers lead the all-time series, 3-0.
“I’ve never played Clemson in my years of coaching,” said Chapman. “I know they’re a very good team historically. They’re coached very well and they always have a lot of talent on their team.”
In the fall, the Tigers went 43-40 overall in singles and tallied a 19-5 doubles mark. Clemson has two players nationally ranked – No. 40 Ayan Broomfield and No. 84, Marie Leduc. The duo is also the No. 44-ranked doubles team. Broomfield owns a 10-4 singles record while Leduc is 5-3. Together they have put up a 5-1 doubles record.
“I think the mindset is to go out and control what we can,” said Chapman. “We feel like if we play well, we do well. If we control the things we can control, then we’ll put ourselves in a really good spot to be successful.”
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