DALLAS – The 74th ranked and 7th-seeded Wichita State women's tennis team swept the 10th-seeded Tulsa Golden Hurricane in the second round of the American Athletic Conference Championship on Thursday evening at Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex.
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The Shockers (13-9) pick up their first win at the AAC Championship since 2019 and Tulsa (11-12) sees their three-match winning streak come to an end. The win for the Shockers also breaks a six-match long losing streak to Tulsa and avenges the Shockers' 4-1 loss at home to the Golden Hurricane ten days ago.
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In doubles,
Giorgia Roselli and
Theodora Chantava struck first to give the Shockers the early edge with a 6-3 win at court three, but Tulsa bounced back to win 6-3 at court two over
Xin Tong Wang and
Natsumi Kurahashi, setting doubles up to be decided by
Kristina Kudryavtseva and
Jessica Anzo at court one.
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After the Shocker pair took a 5-0 lead, Tulsa put together a spectacular rally, winning five games in row to tie the match 5-5. The Shockers won the next game to go up 6-5, but Tulsa answered again to send the match into a tiebreak. After going down 4-2 in the tiebreak, the Shocker pair pulled it out, winning the final five points of the tiebreak to secure a doubles win for the Shockers.
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"It was a crazy doubles point to be able up 5-0 and then go to a tiebreak, but we were able to find a way," Head Coach
Colin Foster said. "Adversity will hit you hard and you have to not only respond, but embrace it, and that's what we did today."
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The Shockers carried the momentum from their doubles win into singles, as the Shockers took the first set on five of six courts to gain a huge advantage.
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"Our first sets were competitive on every court," said Foster. "I thought we did a great job to stay calm and focused when we missed an opportunity, rather than carrying that with us."
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Chantava broke through first, collecting a win over reigning AAC Player of the Week, Lily Hutchings, 6-2, 6-3, at court three.
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Anzo earned her second win of the day with a 6-4, 6-1, victory at court six to make it 3-0 Shockers.
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Wang would deliver the clinch, defeating Tulsa's Maria Berlanga for the second time in ten days to send the Shockers into the AAC Quarterfinals.
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"We just kept our nose to the grindstone and played focused tennis today," said Foster. "We played at a pretty good level on every court."
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The Shockers will play 2-seed and No. 43 ranked Charlotte tomorrow at 3:00 PM in Dallas, with the winner moving to the semifinals to face one of 11-seed UAB, 6-seed Florida Atlantic, or 3-seed Memphis on Saturday at 2:00 PM.