STILLWATER, Okla. (UCFKnights.com) – The No. 24 UCF women’s tennis team saw their 16-match winning streak come to an end at the hands of the No. 12 Oklahoma State Cowgirls by a score of 5-2. It had been 68 days since the Knights had lost a match as a team.
Doubles play began with the Knights winning on court three as Natalia Serrano and Domenika Turkovic rolled to a 6-1 victory over Tamara Arnold and Buyawi Thamchaiwat. UCF went on to take court two 6-2 as Marie Mattel and Rebeka Stolmar topped Marina Guinart and Katarina Stresnakova to clinch the doubles point for the black and gold. Court one went unfinished as a top-25 doubles battle took place. No. 21 Sofia Blanco and Catherine Gulihur were leading No. 20 Valeriya Zeleva and Ksenia Kuznetsova 5-2.
Oklahoma State put the first singles point on the board on court six. Nandini Sharma fell to Gulihur 6-1, 6-2.
The Knights bounced back on court three where Mattel topped No. 102 Guinart in identical sets 6-3, 6-3. The win gives Mattel her first victory over a ranked opponent this season as she moves to 12-4 in singles play.
The Cowgirls hung around and took another point back, locking the match up at 2-2. Court two went the way of Oklahoma State as No. 86 Kuznetsova fell to Lisa Marie Rioux 6-3, 6-1.
Oklahoma State continued to apply pressure as Serrano suffered just her second defeat of the season. On court five, she was edged by Blanco 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 as the Cowgirls took a 3-2 lead. Serrano is now 13-2 on the season and saw her 12-match singles winning streak come to an end.
The remaining courts were forced into third sets as Stolmar fought back from being down in a second set tiebreaker to keep the match going.
The Cowgirls kept their momentum going all the way to the finish line as they clinched the match on court one where No. 38 Stresnakova defeated No. 44 Zeleva 4-6, 7-6 (12-10), 6-2. Oklahoma State picked up an extra point on court three as they played their match to its finish. Here, No. 119 Thamchaiwat edged beat Stolmar 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2. Stolmar's run of 12 consecutive singles victories was snapped with the loss.
UP NEXT
The Knights will host the No. 47 USF Bulls for the season finale for both teams on April 13 at 3 p.m. The entire UCF athletics program leads the Bulls in the War On I-4 by a count of 42-6 this season. will also be Natalia Serrano’s Senior Knight as she plays her final regular season match for the Black and Gold.
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