ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 22 UCF women's tennis team earned their second straight sweep and third consecutive victory as they defeated Old Dominion, a team that was receiving votes in the latest Oracle/ITA team poll, by a count of 7-0 on Monday afternoon.
"I thought our girls handled the day great," said head coach Bryan Koniecko. "It was 20-22 mph winds today, it was great to see Rebeka and Marie get a good win in doubles against a very good Old Dominion team at No. 1. In singles we started off great, Valeryia played fantastic today, Evgeniya played smart today. I thought we all fought really hard and proud of the way they picked up the 7-0 win today."
Both sides had to battle windy conditions as the ball was being pushed around in doubles. After the teams adjusted, the doubles point picked up the pace. No. 60 Ksenia Kuznetsova and Valeriya Zeleva jumped out to a 5-0 lead before pulling to a 6-1 victory over Alexandra Viktorovic and Shahar Biran on court two. No. 6 Rebeka Stolmar and Marie Mattel secured the doubles point for the Knights with a 6-3 victory over No. 8 Yulia Starodubtseva and Alesya Yakubovich at the top spot in the lineup. Court three went unfinished as Holly Hutchinson and Tatsiana Sasnouskaya were leading Nandini Sharma and Evgeniya Levashova 4-2.
UCF collected all six first sets, putting themselves in a tremendous spot early on. No. 67 Zeleva was the first to earn a singles point, picking up a ranked victory over No. 40 Hutchinson by a count of 6-1, 6-2. No. 95 Levashova was the next Knight to add to the tally, rolling to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Starodubtseva.
Kuznetsova went on to clinch the match for the Black and Gold with a win on court four, topping Viktorovic 6-3, 6-3. The remaining courts were allowed to continue playing. Matches that had entered a third set after the Knights had clinched played 10-point super tiebreakers.
No. 42 Stolmar added to the scoreboard next, earning a 6-3, 3-6, 10-3 on court three over Sasnouskaya. The only other match to go to a third set finished next as No. 72 Mattel edged Yakubovich 7-5, 4-6, 10-7 on court five. The match concluded with Jaleesa Leslie's straight set victory on court six by a score of 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) over Brooke Pilkington.
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The Knights will cap off their homestand by hosting Stetson on Thursday at 12 p.m.
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