ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 22 UCF women's tennis team won their fourth straight match and collected their third straight sweep as they defeated Stetson on Thursday afternoon.
"I thought we did well today," said head coach Bryan Koniecko. "Played really well in doubles, we came out playing smart and didn't beat ourselves. We took care of business today and it was good to get our fourth win in a row. Now we'll get prepared for a tough match at Florida."
UCF started out strong in the doubles segment, taking a 4-0 lead across every court. No. 60 Ksenia Kuznetsova and Valeriya Zeleva got the job done first, coasting to a 6-0 victory over Elodie Foster and Danel Ashirova at the second doubles position. Seconds later, court one secured a 6-0 victory of their own as No. 6 Rebeka Stolmar and Marie Mattel clinched the doubles point for UCF over Brooke Milner and Katie Kubicz. Court three went unfinished as Evgeniya Levashova and Nadja Bay Christians led Noa Cohen and Anais Gabriel by a count of 4-1.
The Knights swept the first frame, pulling to big first set victories. Nandini Sharma made her season debut in singles and was the first to finish, winning her match against Tess Menten by a score of 6-0, 6-1.
No. 42 Stolmar got the chance to play at the top singles spot and did not disappoint. The captain cruised her way to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Ashirova to get the Knights within one of the clinching point.
UCF secured their fourth straight victory on court four where No. 72 Mattel posted a 6-1, 6-2 win over Cohen. All remaining courts got the chance to play out their matches following the clincher.
Court six was the next to finish as Jaleesa Leslie topped Vicky Geurinckx by a count of 6-3, 6-3. Court three followed soon after as Bay Christians secured her first singles win of the 2021 campaign, downing Kubicz 6-1, 7-6 (7-5). The final match to wrap up was court three where No. 95 Levashova collected a 6-1, 4-6, 10-3 win to lock up the sweep for the Knights.
With three straight sweeps plus the match winning point against No. 21 Florida, the Knights have put together a 22-point streak, setting a new program record. The team broke the record they set back in 2019 when they accomplished 19 straight points.
The Black and Gold have evened the all-time series at 27-27. UCF has dominated the series in recent years, winning 25 of the last 26 matchups.
UP NEXT
The Knights will hit the road and travel to Gainesville to face No. 21 Florida on Tuesday at noon. The match will conclude UCF's in-season home-and-home with the Gators. The Black and Gold began their current winning streak with a 4-3 victory over Florida on Jan. 29.
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