ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The No. 28 UCF women’s tennis team picked up their thirteenth win in a row as they defeated the Wichita State Shockers by a score of 4-0 on Sunday afternoon.
“We did a good job with the doubles point to give us a little cushion,” said head coach Bryan Koniecko, “We took care of three singles courts and three other courts were tight. I thought we had good energy in singles, our players were talking to each other up and down all six singles courts, and that’s what you want to see.”
Doubles play began with UCF jumping out to early leads on all courts. The doubles portion was a see-saw battle all the way until the end. The first pair to finish was on court three as Marie Mattel and Nandini Sharma defeated Ting-Ya Hsu and Sandra Honigova by a score of 6-3. Mattel and Sharma are now 5-0 as a pair in doubles play. The Knights would secure the doubles point on court one where No. 18 Ksenia Kuznetsova and Valeriya Zeleva bested No. 46 Fatima Bizhukova and Marta Bellucco 6-4. UCF’s top duo now has 10 wins on the season. Court two remained unfinished as Esther Thebault and Sarvinoz Saidhujaeva were in a duel with Natalia Serrano and Rebeka Stolmar who trailed 4-5.
UCF cruised in singles play, winning five of the first six sets. The Knights got out to a quick start and never looked back. Mattel was the first to finish as she won 6-0, 6-0 on court four over Saidhujaeva.
Serrano was next to conclude her match as she nearly repeated Mattel’s score. Serrano bested Hsu 6-1, 6-0 on court five for her tenth singles victory in a row.
Stolmar would get the clincher for the Knights as she won her ninth match in a row. On court three, Stolmar topped Thebault 6-2, 6-2 to seal UCF’s thirteenth straight victory.
Three courts went unfinished as the match ended once the Knights collected their fourth point. No. 27 Zeleva was matched up with Bizukova on court one and was winning set one 6-4, 3-2. Court six saw Domenika Turkovic win a tough first set 7-6 (7-5) and then trail 0-2 when the match was clinched. The only Knight who wasn’t in the lead was No. 70 Kuznetsova, as she battled with Honigova on court two, where the score will remain 4-6, 0-1.
UP NEXT
The Knights will face Tulsa on Friday for the second time this season. The first time came back when both teams were ranked in the top-25. UCF won the match 4-3 as the second leg of ITA Kickoff Weekend.
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