ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 14 UCF women's tennis team went toe-to-toe with No. 28 Ole Miss but came up just short of a victory, falling 4-3 in a third-set tiebreaker on the last remaining court.
The match started out with a tight doubles segment. UCF struck first on court three as No. 29 Ksenia Kuznetsova and Valeriya Zeleva beat Kelsey Mize and Grace Anne Jones 6-3. Court one saw Evgeniya Levashova and Nadja Bay Christians go down big early but fought back to make things interesting. Sabina Machalova and Alexa Bortles shut the door on any comeback attempt, edging the UCF pair 6-4. The doubles point came down to court two where No. 7 Rebeka Stolmar and Marie Mattel triumphed over Anna Vrbenska and Tereza Janatova 6-4 to take the early edge.
The Knights and Rebels split the first sets across all courts to begin the singles segment. UCF kept the momentum rolling from singles as Nandini Sharma earned the first singles point of the match, winning 6-2, 6-3 over Vic de Samucewicz on court six.
The Black and Gold pulled within one of the clincher as No. 70 Mattel earned a straight set victory over Vrbenska by a count of 6-4, 6-3.
Just moments later, Ole Miss collected their first point of the match, as Mize edged No. 41 Stolmar 7-5, 6-4 on court five.
The score remained at 3-1 in favor of UCF for quite some time. The match was up for the taking for either team as two of the three remaining courts were headed into a third set.
The Rebels tacked on another point with a win on court two where Bortles narrowly defeated No. 64 Zeleva 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).
By the time court two fell, Ole Miss was in control of the match despite being down on the scoreboard 3-2, leading big in both remaining third sets. The Rebels pulled even with a win on court one where No. 47 Machalova topped Levashova 6-3, 5-7, 6-1.
The lone remaining court was an interesting one all night long as Bay Christians was in a back and forth battle with Janatova from the start. Janatova, a redshirt senior, took a commanding 5-0 lead over the UCF freshman early on. Bay Christians didn't let that phase her, coming all the way back to win the first set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-5). After falling in the second set, Bay Christians found herself down 5-0 again in the final frame. She didn't fade away with her back against the wall, winning the next six games to give herself a chance to win. Janatova won a deuce point to send the match into a tiebreaker where she eventually sealed a 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) victory and the win for Ole Miss.
The loss snaps a four-match winning streak as well as a mark of four consecutive wins over SEC opponents. The Knights have found success over SEC programs since head coach Bryan Koniecko's arrival, posting a mark of 6-2 against teams from that conference.
UP NEXT
The Black and Gold will head to New Orleans for a pair of matches next weekend. UCF will face No. 23 Old Dominion in a neutral site contest on Feb. 28 before facing Tulane in the Knights' first conference matchup of the season on Feb. 29. That will be just the second time UCF will play a match on a leap year day in their 41 year history, with the only other one taking place in 1988.
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