Tough Play in Win Over Texas Earns Cardona Big 12 Co-Women's Tennis Player of the Week Award

LAWRENCE, Kan. – For the second-consecutive week a Kansas tennis player was named the Big 12 Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Week as senior Maria Jose Cardona snagged the award Wednesday afternoon, the league office announced. Cardona shared this week’s award with TCU’s Seda Arantekin. 
 
Cardona is picking up the award for the first time in her KU career and is the second Jayhawk to be honored by the Big 12 in 2016 as freshman Anastasiya Rychagova has been tabbed the weekly award winner on two occasions (Feb. 3, March 16).
 
Cardona helped Kansas to a monumental moment in the Jayhawks’ lone outing of the past week. The Santiago, Chile, native was instrumental in leading KU to its first-ever win over Texas, as the Jayhawks entered Friday’s match 0-27 all-time against the Longhorns.
 
First, Cardona and her doubles partner, sophomore Summer Collins, joined forces to secure the doubles point for KU. Cardona and Collins topped Texas’ Koprcina and Roldan, 6-3, to put Kansas up 1-0 heading into singles play.
 
As the singles courts were finalized, the team score was knotted at 3-3 with just court six remaining. Cardona battled back from down a set to claim a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win and help Kansas take the win. With Cardona’s two-point contribution, Kansas was able to snap a 27-match losing streak to UT that dated back to March 30, 1977. In addition, the win moved KU to 12-2 on the season, its best mark to open a season since going 17-2 in 1998.
 
Kansas will play its final non-conference match of the 2016 season when it travels to No. 28 Tulsa, Friday, March 25. The Jayhawks and Golden Hurricane will hit the courts at 5 p.m.
 
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