No. 23 Kansas Sweeps No. 46 New Mexico
| Kansas 7, New Mexico 0 Jayhawk Tennis Center February 28, 2016 |
| Doubles |
| No. 1 – Nina Khmelnitckaia/Janet Koch (KU) def. Dominique Dulski/Emily Olivier (NMU) 6-1 |
| No. 2 – Maria Jose Cardona/Summer Collins vs, Ruth Copas/Andrea LeBlanc (NMU) 2-2 unfinished |
| No. 3 – Smith Hinton/Anastasiya Rychagova (KU) def Rachana Bhat/Sharon Coone (NMU) 6-0 |
| Order of Finish: 1,3 |
| Singles |
| No. 1 – Anastasiya Rychagova (KU) def. Andrea LeBlanc (NMU) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 |
| No. 2 – Smith Hinton (KU) def. Emily Olivier (NMU) 6-4, 6-4 |
| No. 3 – Janet Koch (KU) def. Dominique Dulski (NMU) 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 |
| No. 4 – Nina Khmelnitckaia (KU) def. Ludivine Burguiere (NMU) 7-6, 6-4 |
| No. 5 – Summer Collins (KU) def. Rachana Bhat (NMU) 6-1, 6-0 |
| No. 6 – Maria Jose Cardona (KU) def. Sharon Coone (NMU) 6-7, 6-2, 7-6 |
| Order of Finish: 4,2,1,3,5,6 |
Photo Gallery
LAWRENCE, Kan. — After suffering its first defeat of the season on Feb. 26, No. 23 Kansas bested its third top-50 team of the season by sweeping No. 46 New Mexico, 7-0, on Sunday afternoon inside the Jayhawk Tennis Center.
Led by sophomore Smith Hinton – who is undefeated in both singles and doubles matches this year – the Jayhawks (7-1).
“It’s very encouraging to have defeated our third top-50 team,” Kansas head coach Todd Chapman said. “I think it was made even more encouraging after having such a disappointed team on Friday. I was excited to see how we would respond to that loss. It told me a lot about our team. We have five freshmen and sophomores, so I didn’t know how we were going to respond. Losing in a situation where we thought we had some chances to be successful and not doing it—for this young of a group to approach that the way that they did is impressive to me.”
The dual began with Kansas quickly securing the doubles point. Freshmen Nina Khmelnitckaia and Janet Koch were dominant against Dominique Dulski and Emily Oliver on court one racing out to a 5-0 lead. The Lobos then took one game before Kansas claimed the match at 6-1, giving the Jayhawks a 1-0 lead on the doubles point. Freshman Anastasiya Rychagova and sophomore Hinton finished close behind with a 6-0 sweep over UNM’s Rachana Bhat and Sharon Coone as KU took the doubles point.
Leading, 1-0, over New Mexico, Kansas found it was matched extremely well against the Lobos, as every court stayed on serve until, 3-3, in the first set. First to finish was Khmelnitckaia, who defeated Burguiere, 7-6, 6-4, on court four. Next up was Hinton on court two with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Emily Oliver, improving her to an 7-0 mark in singles this season.
On court one, LeBlanc was the first to break serve in the first set when she went up 5-3 against Rychagova on her way to taking the set, 6-4. Rychagova came back in the last two sets to win the match, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, and the overall dual for the Jayhawks, 4-0.
Despite Kansas already owning the win, the two teams played out the final three matches with Kansas claiming victories on all three courts for the 7-0 win. On court three, Kansas’ Koch came back from a 4-6 loss in the first set to best New Mexico’s Dulski, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Collins quickly worked Bhat to bring the Jayhawks up to 6-0 against the Lobos with a 6-0, 6-1 win. Finishing off the dual on court six was Cardona, who gave up the first set to Coone on a tie break, but won the second and took the win, 6-7, 6-2, 7-6, after a 10-8 tie break in the third set.
Up Next
KU will continue its home stand in the Jayhawk Tennis Center as it hosts SMU (March 4), Denver (March 6) and Baylor (March 9). The team’s next road match will take place on March 12 against Tulane in Houston.
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