LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kristina Kudryavtseva battled back for her first collegiate victory, but the Wichita State women's tennis team fell 6-1 at Kansas on Saturday afternoon at the Jayhawk Tennis Center.
The singles lineup for WSU (0-1) included four newcomers. Three of them were making their collegiate dual match debuts against a Kansas team that is receiving votes in the ITA's early season top-25 rankings and advanced to the second round of last year's NCAA tournament.
Kudryavtseva – a freshman from Moscow, Russia -- dropped her opening set at No. 5 singles but swept the second and carried that momentum into the tiebreaker for a 5-7, 6-0, (10-4) victory.
"Kristina rebounded well from not converting set points in the first set to win her match," head coach
Colin Foster said. "Across the board, we played with belief, especially responding well in second sets. Kansas is a good team and just outplayed us today, but there were certainly a lot of positives. We'll be ready to build on those tomorrow."
Two other freshmen --
Theodora Chantava and Marlene Förster – played on courts 4 and 6.
Texas A&M transfer
Jessica Anzo drew a tough opening day assignment, battling KU's 26
th ranked Malkia Ngounoue on court No. 1.
The veteran pairing of Lingwei Kong and
Natsumi Kurahashi played to a draw at No. 1 doubles, but the Shockers lost a close match at No. 2 and another on court 3 to concede the first point of the match.
Up Next:
The Shockers play their home opener Sunday evening against Oral Roberts on the Wichita Country Club indoor courts. First serve is 5 p.m. Fans can track live scoring at shockerstats.com.
