ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 18 UCF women's tennis team earned its fourth straight win and first of conference play as they topped SMU 4-1 on Sunday afternoon at home.
"We played a good doubles point and played the big points really well today; I thought we were brave," said head coach Bryan Koniecko. "We executed some things we worked on hard the past couple weeks in doubles and it showed. That got us a lead and Nandini, Jelly and Marie did a good job to put the points on the board for us. We had a little bit of adversity over the past few weeks but our team responded well today against a top conference opponent."
The doubles point was close throughout, but saw the Knights prevail in the end. No. 32 Rebeka Stolmar and Marie Mattel were the first tandem to secure a win, beating No. 30 Jackie Nylander and Hadley Doyle by a count of 6-4. The victory is the second over a ranked opponent for the UCF duo. The first point of the match was secured on court two where Nandini Sharma and Jaleesa Leslie edged Claudia Bartolome and Chandler Carter 6-4.
SMU fought back in singles play, splitting the six first sets evenly with the Knights.
The Black and Gold earned their first singles victory of the afternoon on court four where Leslie topped Carter 6-4, 6-2. The freshman has been outstanding for the Knights when her number is called as she is 9-3 in her rookie campaign. She has won nine of her last ten matches.
The Mustangs answered with a singles win of their own moments later as No. 93 Evgeniya Levashova was beat by Doyle on court two 6-3, 6-1.
SMU didn't earn another point the rest of the way. Mattel was victorious on court three, besting Winslow Huth 6-2, 6-4, advancing to 6-2 this season including a 2-0 record at No. 3 singles.
Sharma earned the clinching point for the Knights with her win on court five, triumphing over Bartolome 6-3, 6-2. Sharma sits at 4-1 this season and is a perfect 3-0 at the fifth spot in the lineup.
Courts one and six went unfinished. No. 33 Stolmar was battling No. 68 Nylander at the top singles spot in a third set while Marion Deloziere was working her way back in her second frame against Nicole Petchey after dropping the first.
The Knights have defended The Kingdom well this season, going 9-0 at the UCF Collegiate Tennis Center at the USTA National Campus. UCF's home courts will host the American Athletic Conference Championship as well as the NCAA Tournament and Singles and Doubles Championships.
The Black and Gold take the lead in the all-time series against SMU as they now have the 8-7 edge.
UP NEXT
The Knights will take a trip to the center of the country as they'll spend next weekend in Oklahoma. They are scheduled to face No. 42 Oklahoma State on Saturday at 6 p.m. and No. 30 Oklahoma on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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