ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 8 UCF women's tennis team looks to defend its crown as they are set to begin their run in the American Athletic Conference Championship. The top-seeded Knights will face off against a familiar foe in the quarterfinals as they square off with eighth-seeded South Florida on Friday at 12:30 p.m.
This is the third straight tournament that UCF will be The American's top seed. As predetermined before the season, the Knights will host the conference tournament at the UCF Collegiate Tennis Center at the USTA National Campus. The tournament runs from Thursday to Sunday as eight other teams look to dethrone the Black and Gold. South Florida was victorious over ninth-seeded Cincinnati early Thursday morning to advance to the quarterfinal round. Normally, there are two first round matchups, but this season saw Temple come down with COVID-19 issues, forcing them to withdraw from the tournament. Teams were seeded in order of their Oracle/ITA team rankings.
UCF completed their second perfect run of their home schedule in the last three seasons. The Knights ended the 2021 regular season campaign with an 11-0 mark at home; the team did the same in 2019 going 15-0. The Black and Gold are 57-8 at the UCF Collegiate Tennis Center at the USTA National Campus since they began playing there in 2017. Three of those wins came during the UCF's American title run in 2019.
The Knights ended the season on a run as they've won three straight and are winners in eight of their last nine matches. UCF swept South Florida, upset then-No. 4 FSU and topped No. 46 Tulsa to wrap up their regular season with a record of 15-4.
Aside from opening weekend, Valeriya Zeleva has gone all season without a loss in singles as she has won 10 straight and sits with a record of 10-2. She's recorded six victories in eight tries over ranked foes with her only two losses coming during ITA Kickoff Weekend. Nandini Sharma has come on strong down the stretch, winning seven in a row to reach a record of 8-1. Jaleesa Leslie leads the team with a record of 12-4 and has won eight of her last ten matches. Ksenia Kuznetsova trails her by just one in the victory column as she's posted a record of 11-3. Just behind Kuznetsova in victories is UCF's captain Rebeka Stolmar with a record of 10-6 on the campaign.
The Knights and Bulls have met once already this season as UCF came out on top 7-0 two weeks ago in Orlando. The Black and Gold haven't lost to South Florida since head coach Bryan Koniecko's first season with the team in 2017. Since then, UCF has won four straight, including winning The American title over South Florida in 2019.
UCF is searching for their seventh overall conference championship and second as part of The American. The Knights will look to go back-to-back after winning the 2019 crown and seeing the 2020 tournament get canceled due to COVID-19. It would be the first time the Black and Gold notch back-to-back conference championships since the turn of the century when they four-peated, earning the ASUN title from 1997-2000.
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