OXFORD, Miss. (UCFKnights.com) – The No. 21 UCF women’s tennis team defeated the Ole Miss Rebels by a score of 6-1 on Sunday. The victory makes it four straight wins for the Knights, including a sweep of their SEC road trip.
“It was another good day for the Knights,” said head coach Bryan Koniecko, “We played smart, focused tennis and that’s what we had to do to beat a great team like Ole Miss. We did a great job getting leads on courts and shutting the door at the end of sets. We will enjoy it for a little and get back to it this weekend.”
Doubles play began with Rebeka Stolmar and Marie Mattel stomping on the accelerator and cruising to a quick 6-0 win on court two over Anna Vrbenska and Tereza Janatova. The Knights would lock up the doubles point on court one where No. 16 Valeriya Zeleva and Ksenia Kuznetsova defeated Tea Jandric and Sabina Machalova 6-2. UCF’s dynamic duo of Zeleva and Kuznetsova move to 7-0 on the season at the number one position. The Black and Gold’s duo of Natalia Serrano and Domenika Turkovic were leading 5-4 on court three over Alexa Bortles and Cameron Kriscunas at the time doubles was clinched. Their match went unfinished.
The Knights would ride the momentum they gained from doubles into singles play. The first Knight to get a singles point on the board was Stolmar as she downed Vrbenska 6-2, 6-0 on court three.
Court four was the next to wrap up, as Mattel beat Bortles 6-3, 6-1. The win was Mattel’s eighth on the season and moves her to a perfect 8-0 on the year.
The Knights would clinch the match on court one where No. 34 Zeleva shut the door on No. 105 Machalova 6-3, 6-1. Zeleva also moves to an 8-0 record on the season with all her victories at the top spot in the lineup.
The two sides would let the remainder of the match play itself out, as the Knights got their fifth point on court five where Nandini Sharma won in three sets over Janatova 3-6, 6-4, 10-7. Set three was played as a 10 point tiebreaker since the match had already been clinched. Ole Miss grabbed their lone point on court two where Kuznetsova was edged by Jandric who won 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.
The Knights completed their third consecutive 6-1 victory on court six where Serrano bested Allie Sanford 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.
UP NEXT
The Black and Gold will return home to play three matches in four days. They will face Georgia State on Thursday at 5 p.m. Denver comes to town on Saturday for an 11 a.m. start time before the Knights faced the ranked Florida Gators for College MatchDay on Sunday at 5 p.m.
COLLEGE MATCHDAY
With less than a week until College MatchDay, don’t miss an opportunity to see the No. 21 Knights battle the No. 22 Florida Gators. Click here to claim your free ticket for the match on Feb. 24.
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