ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 18 UCF women's tennis team picked up a 5-2 victory over SMU on Saturday afternoon in Dallas as the Knights have won back-to-back matches against conference opponents.
"We were fortunate to sneak out of a hole in doubles today and then play solid in singles," said UCF head coach Bryan Koniecko. "It's not easy playing on the road but I am glad we found a way to get a win against a tough team. SMU did a great job of competing today and made it tough for us, so give credit to their team and coach Nevolo."
The Knights trailed big on two of the three doubles courts midway through the segment, down 1-4. Meanwhile, No. 65 Evgeniya Levashova and Domenika Turkovic collected a dominating victory on court two, winning 6-1 over Nicole Petchey and Claudia Bartolome. SMU struck back on court one as No. 60 Jackie Nylander and I. Tcherkes Zade edged No. 47 Ksenia Kuznetsova and Valeriya Zeleva 6-4. The doubles point came down to court three where Marie Mattel and Nandini Sharma took a narrow 7-5 decision over S. Monarrez Yesaki and Tiffany Hollebeck.
This was just the third time this season that SMU has lost the doubles point. The Knights and Mustangs split the first sets evenly.
The Black and Gold struck first in singles play as No. 108 Levashova cruised past Nylander 6-2, 6-2. That pushes Levashova's record to 9-1 this season with seven of those wins at the top spot.
SMU collected their first singles point of the match on court six where Katherine Jakeway defeated Turkovic 7-5, 6-1.
UCF pulled to within one of the clincher as Kuznetsova tallied a win on court three, defeating Bartolome 6-3, 6-2
The Knights secured their third consecutive win and second in a row against a conference opponent this season with Sharma's victory on court five. She went on to beat Petchey 6-3, 6-2.
The remaining courts were played to their conclusion. SMU grabbed a win on court four as Monarrez defeated No. 66 Mattel 7-6, 6-2.
No. 91 Zeleva won her match on court two in three sets, picking up the 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Tcherkes Zade.
The Knights haven't lost to a conference opponent since Apr. 20, 2018 when UCF fell to SMU in the conference semifinals. That was 686 days ago, as the Black and Gold have now beat 11 straight league foes. The win also represented the 499th in program history.
UP NEXT
The Knights will head to Waco, Texas to take on No. 27 Baylor on at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday. A victory would give UCF their third win over a ranked opponent this season and their 500th in program history.
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