ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) - The UCF women’s tennis team capped another strong weekend at the Lakewood Ranch Dick Vitale Intercollegiate Clay Court Classic. Natalia Serrano and Ksenia Kuznetsova notched the top finish with runner-up honors in the doubles flight.
The veteran duo opened the weekend with a 7-6(4) win over Rita Ointo and Shene Disbergen from Virginia Tech. In the quarter finals, the pairing rolled past Ashley Bongart and Lara Soares of Liberty, 8-2, before edging Stevie Kennedy and Aleksa Cveticanin from TCU in the semi finals, a match that ended in the TCU pair retiring.
Kuznetsova and Serrano met their match in Marina Guinart and Catherine Gulihur from Oklahoma State in the finals, falling 8-2.
In the singles flight, Kuznetsova and Sara Culbertson were the lone Knights to punch their ticket to the second round. Kuznetsova, the No. 2 seed, took down Disbergen, 6-0, 6-3, but dropped her second round match up to Soares 6-4, 2-6, 10-5. Culbertson took down Natasha Irani of Boston College 4-6, 6-1, 10-7. She came up on the wrong side of a 6-3, 6-1 decision to Mercedes Aristegui of TCU.
After dropping her first round singles match to Ana Roman Dominguez of South Florida, 6-3, 6-3, Valentina Martin beat Sophie Dodds from UAB, 8-5. She later dropped her quarters battle to Katie Kubicz from Florida, 6-0, 3-6, 10-7.
Serrano bounced back from a 7-5, 6-3 defeat to Natalie Novotna of Virginia Tech, with an 8-2 victory over FGCU Patricia Villar. She advanced to the consolation semis with a 8-4 win over Jeannez Daniel in the quarters. The Spanish international dropped her semis match to Tsveta Dimitrova of Florida, 2-6, 6-4, 10-3.
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