STILLWATER, Okla. – The No. 16 UCF women's tennis team earned its fifth straight win on Saturday night, beating No. 41 Oklahoma State 4-2 on the road. It's the Knights' fourth win over a ranked opponent in 2021 and fifth Power 6 victory of the season.
"The team fought really hard today to get this win," said head coach Bryan Koniecko. "Oklahoma State is a great team and they've had some tight matches with some great teams. We started with singles today which was a little bit different, but I thought we did a good job and responded well to having to wait for the match before ours to finish. Rebeka did a good job getting a win against their number one singles player. Ksenia played a great tiebreaker to get a point for us. Nandini fought super hard to come back from that first set loss. All in all, I'm pleased but we're going to have to do better against Oklahoma; need to get some good rest tonight and be ready."
The start to the match was delayed due to the Oklahoma State men's tennis match finishing up prior to the women's match. Untraditionally, the match started with singles play. The Knights took an initial edge, winning four of six first frames.
Oklahoma State was the first to put a point on the scoreboard as No. 53 Alana Wolfberg beat No. 85 Evgeniya Levashova 6-2, 6-0 on court three.
The Black and Gold retaliated as Jaleesa Leslie earned a straight set victory over Lenka Stara by a count of 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 on court five. The freshman sensation is the first to 10 victories on the team this season, witting with a 10-3 record and has won her last four decisions.
UCF added another point on court two where Ksenia Kuznetsova won her ninth singles match in a row, beating Ayumi Miyamoto 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). It was Kuznetsova's first match at the No. 2 spot in the lineup as she advanced her record to 9-1 this season.
The Knights continued to apply the pressure as No. 38 Rebeka Stolmar earned a huge victory at the top spot in the lineup, triumphing over No. 16 Bunyawi Thamchaiwat 7-5, 7-5 to put UCF up 3-1. Stolmar is 8-4 this season, going 3-0 at No. 1 singles. She has a pair of wins over ranked opponents on the campaign.
The remaining two courts entered third sets with the match hanging in the balance. The Cowgirls needed to win both remaining courts to force the evening to the doubles segment. They were able to get one of the two courts with a win on court four where Dariya Detkovskaya beat Marie Mattel 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Nandini Sharma earned the clinching point on court six as the last match in action. After falling in the first set, Sharma bounced back to win a tough second stanza and cruised to a third set victory, beating Daniella Medvedeva 1-6, 7-5, 6-0.
With the match clinched, doubles play was not necessary, and the match came to its conclusion.
This was just the second all-time meeting between the two sides. The Cowgirls got the better of the Knights in Stillwater during the 2019 dual match season which snapped the team's 16-match winning streak. Saturday's match levels the all-time series at 1-1.
UP NEXT
UCF is right back in action on Sunday as they'll visit No. 33 Oklahoma at 1 p.m.
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