No. 17 Kansas downs TCU, 4-1

FORT WORTH, Texas – The No. 17-ranked Kansas women’s tennis team had another dominate performance Sunday against TCU for a 4-1 victory in Fort Worth.
 
After their two wins this weekend, the Jayhawks improved to 11-4 on the season and 3-1 in Big 12 Conference play. Meanwhile, TCU dropped to 9-8 overall, 0-2 in Big 12 action.
 
Competing on court two together for just the second time ever, junior Janet Koch and redshirt-freshman Amber Policare cruised to a 6-0 victory against Marie Norris and Stevie Kennedy of TCU, notching their first win as a doubles pair this season.
 
Senior Despoina Vogasari and sophomore Maria Toran Ribes fell behind, 2-0, early before overcoming the deficit opposite of Aleksa Cveticanin and Aleksandra Zenovka, tying it at 3-3, then 4-4, and eventually taking a 6-4 win at the No. 3 spot and claiming the doubles point for Kansas.
 
Junior Nina Khmelnitckaia and sophomore Tatiana Nikolaeva squared up against TCU’s Donika Bashota and Alexis Pereira at the No. 1 position, but the match was stopped at 5-3 in favor of Kansas due to the doubles point being won on court three.

“I am really proud of this team,” said head coach Todd Chapman. “We played tough (Sunday) and just kept competing. Whether it was our best tennis or not is debatable, but I was really impressed with our toughness (Sunday).” 

On court one, No. 118 Vogasari and the Horned Frogs’ Cveticanin played a close first set, with every point after being tied at 2-2 going back-and-forth between the players. Ending up in a tiebreaker, Vogasari prevailed to claim the first set, 7-6 (7-5). Carrying that momentum into her second set, Vogasari blanked Cveticanin for a 7-6 (7-5), 6-0 victory and put Kansas up, 2-1.
 
Khmelnitckaia and No. 84 Zenovka were tied at 1-1 in their first set before Khmelnitckaia won three-straight games to take a 4-2 lead at the No. 3 position and a 6-2 first-set win. Khmelnitckaia led Zenovka, a senior from Moscow, Russia, 4-1, in the second set. The Horned Frog made a run to tie the second set at 6-6. Eventually, Kansas’ Khmelntickaia came out on top in the tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-2), and extend the Jayhawks’ lead to 3-1.
 
Kansas junior Janet Koch was able to edge No. 114 Norris at the No. 2 spot in their first-set tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-5). Koch then led throughout the second set for a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, match victory and sealed the match for KU, 4-1.
 
Toran Ribes held a 4-2 first-set lead over TCU’s Bashota on court four. Bashota was able to rally, claiming the next four games to top Toran Ribes, 6-4, in the first set. She wasn’t able to overcome Bashota in the second, falling, 6-1.
 
Nikolaeva dropped her first set to Kennedy, 7-5. Their second set was stopped due to the match being clinched with Nikolaeva up 5-2 at the No. 5 position.
 
Playing at six singles, Policare led only once in her first set against Meredith Roberts.Roberts took a 5-2 lead over Policare, whose comeback was not enough, falling to the Horned Frog, 6-4. Their second set ended tied at 6-6 since the match had finished.
 
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