NEW ORLEANS – The No. 25 UCF women's tennis team rolled to a 6-1 victory over No. 29 Old Dominion on Friday in a neutral site match. The win is the Knights' second over a ranked opponent this season.
"I'm really proud of the way we competed today," said UCF head coach Bryan Koniecko, "We got back to our roots as a team and it showed. Old Dominion has been having a great season so far and we had to bring our best to beat them and we did that today. All of our players were engaged throughout the match in both singles and doubles. We just have to keep taking it one day at a time, but if we're able to compete like this we'll be a tough team to beat."
After a tight start, the Knights began to pull away late in the doubles segment. Marie Mattel and Nandini Sharma defeated Tatsiana Sasnouskaya and Brooke Pilkington 6-2. The Black and Gold went on to clinch the doubles point on court two as Evgeniya Levashova and Domenika Turkovic topped Old Dominion's Alexandra Viktorovic and Shahar Brian 6-2. Court one went unfinished as No. 29 Ksenia Kuznetsova and Valeriya Zeleva were even at 3-3 against No. 10 Yulia Starodubtseva and Alesya Yakubovich.
Kuznetsova worked her way to a quick victory on court three where she triumphed over Viktorovic 6-2, 6-0 to claim the first singles point of the match. Kuznetsova won so fast that she finished before all first sets were final. Once all first frames were officially in the books, the Knights had won five of the six.
Finishing next was No. 70 Mattel on court four as she won in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 over Pilkington. Mattel moves to 7-3 this season in singles play with the win including three victories in a row.
The Knights went on to clinch the match on court six as Turkovic won a tight three-set contest 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. Turkovic also clinched UCF's other win against a ranked opponent this season, sealing the Knights' 5-2 victory over then No. 18 Texas A&M at the No. 5 singles spot.
The momentum continued to go in UCF's direction as Levashova claimed a win at the top slot in the lineup. The win was Levashova's first over a ranked opponent as she topped No. 105 Starodubtseva 7-6 (7-0), 6-3.
The Knights tacked on another point with a win on court two as No. 64 Zeleva topped Yakubovich 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.
The only point Old Dominion would collect on the afternoon was on court five as Biran edged Sharma 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
UP NEXT
UCF is right back in action tomorrow as they face Tulane to open up their 2020 conference slate. The Knights went undefeated during the regular season against American Athletic Conference Opponents and swept their way through the conference tournament.
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