Kansas Tennis Dominates Nebraska-Omaha and Drake to Open 2016 Season 2-0
| Kansas 7, Nebraska-Omaha 0 Jayhawk Tennis Center January 18, 2016 |
| Doubles |
| No. 1 – Nina Khmelnitckaia/Janet Koch (KU) def. Hylan Miller/Kenzie Hill (OMAHA) 6-1 |
| No. 2- Maria Jose Cardona/Summer Collins (KU) def. Michelle Lo/Molly Matricadi (OMAHA) 6-1 |
| No. 3 – Anastasiya Rychagova/Smith Hinton (KU) def. Allison Johnson/Janelle Wilson (OMAHA) 6-2 |
| Order of Finish: 1,3,2 |
| Singles |
| No. 1 – Anastasiya Rychagova (KU) def. Hylan Miller (OMAHA) 6-0, 6-1 |
| No. 2 – Smith Hinton (KU) def. Molly Matricadi (OMAHA) 7-5, 6-1 |
| No. 3 – Nina Khmelnitckaia (KU) def. Janelle Wilson (OMAHA) 6-1, 6-1 |
| No. 4 – Summer Collins (KU) def. Kenzie Hill (OMAHA) 6-3, 6-2 |
| No. 5 – Janet Koch (KU) def. Allison Johnson (OMAHA) 6-1, 6-1 |
| No. 6 – Maria Jose Cardona (KU) def. Hannah Hills (OMAHA) 6-0, 6-0 |
| Order of Finish: 1,3,4,2,5,6 |
Box Score vs. Nebraska-Omaha // Box Score vs. Drake
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LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas women’s tennis started the 2016 dual-match season with a pair of dominating wins over Nebraska-Omaha and Drake on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at the Jayhawk Tennis Center. Kansas blanked both Omaha and Drake, 7-0.
Kansas head coach Todd Chapman was pleased with KU’s season-opening performance.
“I thought today was a good day,” said Chapman. “It’s been a long day, but at the end of the day it’s been a successful day and we took care of the business we needed to take care of by starting the season off 2-0, so from that stand point I thought it was really good.
“Moving forward, we’ve got about a week and a half before we have our first road trip of the year and we have two really strong, top 50 teams we’re playing in Purdue and Arkansas, so we’ll just be getting ready for that, but it’s the same thing that we’ve been preaching since we’ve gotten back–just trying to get better every day. I think that’s the positive of playing, is it gives you the chance to play against someone other than your teammate every day and there is some pressure involved and it shows some things that we need to work on. That’s always positive when people expose the things that we need to improve upon as far as trying to get better.”
Jayhawks Blank Nebraska-Omaha, 7-0
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas women’s tennis started the 2016 dual-match season with a dominating, 7-0, win over Nebraska-Omaha on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at the Jayhawk Tennis Center. The win gave the Jayhawks a 1-0 mark to start the year, while the Mavericks fell to 0-1.
The morning started off with the Jayhawks defeating the Mavericks in doubles play in less than 25 minutes. In those 25 minutes KU only gave up four games to Omaha.
Freshmen Nina Khmelnitckaia (Moscow, Russia) and Janet Koch (Durbanville, South Africa) were the first Jayhawks to finish as they defeated Omaha’s Hylan Miller and Kenzie Hall, 6-1, on court 1. Kansas clinched the doubles point as senior Maria Jose Cardona (Santiago, Chile) joined forces with sophomore Summer Collins (Atlanta, Georgia) for a 6-2 win over Omaha’s Allison Johnson and Janelle Wilson on court 3.
The Jayhawks returned to the court in singles play with momentum from the early doubles lead, which led to some quick success. Freshman Anastasiya Rychogava (Moscow, Russia), who entered the match ranked No. 45 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings, handled her Omaha counterpart, Miller, 6-0, 6-1, to pick up a win on court 1 and give KU a 2-0 lead in the match.
“I worked really hard, but my teammates and coaches helped me a lot,” said Rychagova. “They pushed me and I feel like my performance was good so I have a bit of confidence right now.”
| Kansas 7, Drake 0 Jayhawk Tennis Center January 18, 2016 |
| Doubles |
| No. 1 – Nina Khmelnitckaia/Janet Koch (KU) def. Mariel Ante/Tess Herder (DRAKE) 6-3 |
| No. 2- Maria Jose Cardona/Summer Collins (KU) def. Summer Brills/Maddie Johnson (DRAKE) 7-5 |
| No. 3 – Anastasiya Rychagova/Smith Hinton (KU) def. no player/no player (DRAKE) default |
| Order of Finish: 3,1,2 |
| Singles |
| No. 1 – Anastasiya Rychagova (KU) def. Mariel Ante (DRAKE) 6-1, 6-2 |
| No. 2 – Smith Hinton (KU) def. Summer Brills (DRAKE) 6-2, 6-2 |
| No. 3 – Nina Khmelnitckaia (KU) def. Maddie Johnson (DRAKE) 6-3, 6-2 |
| No. 4 – Janet Koch (KU) def. Tess Herder (DRAKE) 6-2, 6-1 |
| No. 5 – Maria Jose Cardona (KU) def. Mela Jaglarz (DRAKE) 6-1, 6-1 |
| No. 6 – Alexis Czapinski (KU) def. no player (DRAKE) default |
| Order of Finish: 6,2,1,3,4,5 |
Khmelnitckaia pushed the Jayhawk lead to 3-0 as she ousted UNO’s Wilson, 6-1, 6-1. Collins officially gave Kansas the win as she defeated Omaha’s Hill, 6-3, 6-2, to pick up KU’s fourth and deciding point.
On court 2, sophomore Smith Hinton (Raleigh, North Carolina), was in a back and forth battle with Omaha’s Molly Matricardi. Hinton took the first the 7-5, before cruising to a 6-1 second-set win.
Behind a powerful serve, KU’s Koch topped UNO’s Johnson, 6-1, 6-1, on court five, while Cardona finished off the Mavericks by blanking UNO’s Hannah Hills, 6-0,6-0, court six for the final score of 7-0 in the Jayhawks favor.
Kansas Tops Shorthanded Drake, 7-0
The Jayhawks followed up their successful morning with another one-sided match by defeating the Drake Bulldogs, 7-0, in their afternoon outing at the Jayhawk Tennis Center.
To start the competition, Koch and Khmelnitckaia secured the doubles point for the Jayhawks by winning, 6-3, against Mariel Ante and Tess Herder from Drake. Kansas had already secured a win on court 3 by default, as Drake was shorthanded entering the match, thus Koch and Khmelnitkcaia’s victory on court 1 was all KU needed to take a quick 1-0 overall advantage in the match.
Meanwhile, Collins and Cardona played to the end of their match on court 2 against Brills and Johnson, despite KU already owning the doubles point. Collins and Cardona stayed on serve with their Drake counterparts, Summer Brills and Maddie Johnson, until the match was knotted at 5-5. The Jayhawk duo then broke Brills and Johnson at 6-5, before finishing them off on Cardona’s service.
“The match was definitely a big improvement from how we played against Omaha,” said Collins. “For us, it was about being aggressive and being able to win enough balls to give us the right opportunities. Overall, I felt that the match was good even though we have things to improve on.”
The Jayhawks entered singles play up 2-0 as Drake was forced to default on court 6. KU picked up its next point in singles play from Hinton. Playing on court 2, Hinton gave up only four games throughout the set and finished 6-2, 6-2 against her opponent from Drake, Brills.
Kansas continued its success by picking up a win from Rychagova who bested her opponent, Ante, 6-1, 6-2 on court 1. Khmelnitckaia extended the Jayhawk lead to 4-0 by defeating Drake’s Johnson, 6-3, 6-2. Shortly after Khmelnitckaia finished, Koch topped Drake’s Herder, 6-2, 6-1 on court 4.
Cardona scored the seventh and final point for Kansas as she defeated Mela Jaglarz of Drake, 6-1, 6-1, on court 5.
Janet Koch (left) and Nina Khmelnitckaia went 2-0 at No. 1 doubles in matches against Nebraska-Omaha and Drake.
UP NEXT
Kansas will travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas to take on the hometown Arkansas Razorbacks and the Purdue Boilermakers. KU will take on No.36 Arkansas on Friday, Jan. 29, before facing No.44 Purdue on Saturday, Jan. 30 at the Billingsley Tennis Center on the University of Arkansas campus.
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