ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – After their best season in program history, the UCF women's tennis team has three singles players and two doubles tandems ranked heading into the 2019-20 season.
UCF's ranked singles players begins with last season's top singles player for the Knights, Valeriya Zeleva, who checks in at No. 29. Ksenia Kuznetsova will start the fall ranked No. 62 while Rebeka Stolmar rounds out the ranked Knights at No. 98 in singles play.
The Black and Gold will have two ranked doubles tandems to begin the fall, just as they did to end the spring. UCF's top duo of Zeleva and Kuznetsova begin their 2019-20 campaign as the No. 7 pair in the nation while Stolmar and Marie Mattel sit at No. 31. The two duos ended last season at No. 21 and No. 78 respectively after finishing off their tremendous 2019 dual match season.
Zeleva and Kuznetsova were the first doubles tandem in program history to win a match in the NCAA Doubles Championships. They defeated Saint Mary's No. 32 pair in the first round of the tournament before being edged in the Sweet 16 to end their season. Zeleva and Kuznetsova played exclusively at the No. 1 doubles position and posted a record of 15-6 by season's end. The pair were in sync from the start of the 2019 dual match season, winning their first eight matches together. Zeleva and Kuznetsova finished the season winning seven of their last ten matches that they completed, including two big wins against No. 37 Alabama and No. 11 FSU in the NCAA Tournament.
Stolmar and Mattel were two tremendous doubles players throughout the season but weren't paired together at the start. Once paired together, they were virtually unstoppable. The pair posted a 14-1 record together and won their final nine matches together, finishing the season with a win against the nation's No. 83 pair from Pepperdine in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Individually, Mattel won her last 15 matches and posted a 21-4 record in doubles over the spring. Stolmar and Mattel weren't ranked for the entirety of the 2019 season until the final edition of the rankings when they cracked in at No. 78.
The Knights will have one additional ranked singles player when they hit the courts this fall compared to the number they had at the end of the 2019 dual match season. Zeleva and Kuznetsova finished the 2019 season ranked No. 48 and No. 97 respectively. Zeleva punched her ticket to the NCAA Singles Championships by being the highest ranked singles player in The American. Kuznetsova was a consistent No. 2, winning 25 matches throughout the entirety of the 2018-19 season, good enough for a tie of third place on UCF's single season wins list.
Stolmar caps UCF's ranked singles players at No. 98. The senior is tasked with leading the Knights to another remarkable season. She led by example last season, posting a 15-5 record including a 13-3 mark at the No. 3 singles position. Stolmar was a contributor in doubles all season as well, posting an 18-4 record individually.
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