MIAMI, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The No. 21 UCF women’s tennis team defeated the FIU Panthers 5-2 on Sunday afternoon. The Knights have won 16 consecutive matches after today’s victory, tying the program’s second longest winning streak set back in 1997.
The match began with the Knights taking an early lead in doubles play on court three. Marie Mattel and Nandini Sharma picked up a win over Paulina Bakaite and Maryna Veksler by a score of 6-3 to move to 6-0 as a duo this season. Court two clinched the doubles point for the Knights as Natalia Serrano and Domenika Turkovic topped Maria Turrillo and Sandra Bozinovic 6-4. UCF was close to winning on court one as No. 31 Valeriya Zeleva and Ksenia Kuznetsova led No. 64 Basak Akbas and Kamila Umarova 5-4 when the point was clinched.
Singles play began with FIU taking a point back on court four where Bozinovic defeated Sharma 6-0, 6-0.
The Knights rebounded on court six as Turkovic picked up the first singles point for the Black and Gold. She topped Turrillo 6-3, 6-0 for her fifth win in a row.
No. 41 Zeleva pushed the lead to 3-1 when she bested Veksler at the top singles spot 6-2, 6-2. Zeleva moves to 15-4 on the season with the victory.
Rebeka Stolmar came in clutch once again as the reigning American Athletic Conference player of the week picked up a victory at the No. 2 spot in the lineup by a score of 6-3, 6-3 over Umarova. Stolmar clinched the doubles point as well as the match in singles today, the third straight time she has done so. She extends her winning streak in singles to 12 matches.
The match was played out after it was clinched by UCF. Serrano was next to finish as she extended her winning streak to 12 matches. She topped Bakaite 7-5, 6-1 on court five to move to 13-1 this season.
The remaining court went the way of the Panthers as Mattel fell in a third-set super tiebreaker to Akbas on court three 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 10-6.
UP NEXT
UCF will face one of their toughest tests this season as they travel to face No. 9 Oklahoma State on Friday, April 5 at 5 p.m.
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