ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 16 UCF women's tennis team defeated the TCU Horned Frogs by a score of 4-1 on Friday afternoon at the UCF Collegiate Tennis Center at the USTA National Campus. The victory is the second in a row for the Knights and the second straight over a Power 6 opponent.
"I thought we did an extremely good job coming out of the gates in doubles," said UCF head coach Bryan Koniecko, "All three doubles courts put themselves in a position to win early on. TCU hung around for a little bit but we ended up executing and putting it a way. In singles we did a great job, we had energy and focused the whole time."
Doubles play saw the Knights take big leads on all courts. Court one got out to a 5-0 start as Nadja Bay Christians and Evgeniya Levashova were looking to beat Stevie Kennedy and Chloe Hule without surrendering a game. The TCU pair fought back but the UCF tandem was victorious 6-2 as the first court finished in doubles. UCF clinched the doubles point as No. 32 Valeryia Zeleva and Ksenia Kuznetsova defeated Kate Paulus and Marie Norris 6-4 on court three. Court two went unfinished with No. 5 Rebeka Stolmar and Marie Mattel holding a 5-3 lead over Mercedes Aristegui ad Margaret Polk.
Singles saw the Black and Gold get out to a fast start, winning five of six first sets. TCU got on the scoreboard first though as Norris defeated No. 32 Stolmar 6-2, 6-0.
A wave of Knights were set to clinch their courts all at once. No. 61 Mattel was the first to claim a point in singles as she defeated Hule in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 on court three. Just moments later, Kuznetsova picked up her first win of the 2020 dual match season as she topped Polk 6-4, 6-1 on court six.
Bay Christians went on to pick up her first win as part of the UCF squad as she bested Paulus on court on court four by a score of 6-1, 6-4. Her first victory for the Black and Gold also doubled as the match clincher, sealing the 4-1 victory.
Two matches went unfinished at the match's conclusion. Levashova was up 6-2, 4-0 against Aristegui on court one while No. 65 Zeleva was beating Kennedy 6-4, 3-2 on court two.
The win is UCF's second straight over a Power 6 opponent. The Knights defeated No. 18 Texas A&M their last time out by a count of 5-2. Three of UCF's four victories so far this season have been over Power 6 teams.
The match was originally delayed an hour and a half due to rain. It was a relatively quick match after the 1:30 p.m. start time, lasting an hour and 54 minutes.
Following the Knights' win over TCU, the Black and Gold beat UC Santa Barbara in doubles. The two sides were scheduled to only play the doubles point and finish the remainder of the match on Sunday.
UP NEXT
The Knights will finish the singles point of their match with UC Santa Barbara on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. UCF has a 1-0 lead in the match heading into the solo segment. The Black and Gold will square off with Nebraska following the conclusion of that match at 12:30 p.m.
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