ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 9 ranked and nationally seeded UCF women's tennis team saw its season come to an end in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament as they were edged by No. 18 Duke 4-3 on Sunday night.
"Obviously it hurts for the team," said head coach Bryan Koniecko. "It's never easy to send off seniors on a loss like that. The team fought. That's been our motto and that's why we've gotten to this point. They fought hard, it just didn't work out in Evgeniya's favor today. I'm excited about the room coming back, we've got some key players coming back that can help us get back to this level and then some. Our seniors did a good job to get this program to where it is and now its time for the new seniors to elevate this program to what it's supposed to be. Lastly, I want to thank the fans who came out and gave us an extra boost at home. We could sense the energy from the beginning of doubles. Unfortunately, a couple of things didn't go our way in some big points but that's tennis at this stage; it's a difference of four or five tennis points. It didn't go our way, but we'll keep trying to figure out how to get this place better."
The match was tight from the first serve in doubles. The Knights jumped out to a 3-1 lead on all three courts and saw Ksenia Kuznetsova and Valeriya Zeleva ride that momentum to a 6-3 victory on court two over No. 9 Chloe Beck and Karolina Berankova. Kuznetsova and Zeleva finish the season 14-4 after tallying their first win over a ranked opponent together this season. The remaining two courts went the way of the Blue Devils. Court one finished next as No. 10 Meible Chi and Margaryta Bilokin beat Rebeka Stolmar and Marie Mattel 6-3 before court three gave Duke the doubles point as No. 41 Kelly Chen and Georgia Drummy beat Evgeniya Levashova and Nadja Bay Christians 6-4.
The Knights put themselves in a good position coming out of doubles, winning four of six first sets. Duke rode their first frames to straight set victories as No. 40 Chi Beat Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-3 on court four and No. 19 Drummy beat Stolmar 6-4, 6-4 on court two.
UCF was in a good spot despite being down 3-0 on the scoreboard and had control of each remaining court.
The Black and Gold earned their first point of the match on court one where No. 22 Zeleva earned a 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 49 Chen at the top spot in singles. The victory was Zeleva's 13th in a row as she improves to 13-2 on the season and 8-2 against ranked opponents.
Nandini Sharma was next to put a point on the scoreboard as she bested Berankova 6-1, 7-5 on court six. Sharma wraps up the campaign with an impressive 11-2 mark having won six of her last seven decisions.
Jaleesa Leslie worked her way through a three-set battle to knot the match up at 3-3 with her 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 triumph over Bilokin. The standout freshman finishes the season as the team's leader in wins, collecting a 16-4 record and winning her final four matches.
The fate of the match rested in the hands of court three where Levashova was going toe-to-toe with No. 39 Beck. Levashova took the opening set by a count of 6-4 before Beck retaliated with a 6-2 victory in the second stanza.
The final frame's first five games were all holds and saw Beck take a 3-2 lead after serving first. Out of the following changeover, Beck earned a break but saw Levashova break back. Another round of breaks had Beck up 5-4 as she eventually went on to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 and eliminate the Knights from postseason contention.
The Black and Gold's season was one to remember and was arguably one of, if not the best campaigns in program history. The Knights finish with a record of 20-5, achieving a 20-win season for just third time in the Koniecko era, bringing the program total to seven overall. Eight of UCF's 20 victories were over ranked opponents, one of them including an upset of No. 4 FSU in Tallahassee, which propelled the team into the top 10 of the Oracle/ITA rankings for the first time in program history. UCF climbed to No. 8 after that win and earned their first national seed, checking into the NCAA Tournament at No. 9. The Knights were champions of The American for the second straight season, winning back-to-back conference titles for the first time since 1999-2000. The Knights can make the claim that they're state champs after going 10-0 against seven different in state opponents, including a pair of wins against Florida and Miami.
"It's hard to think about all of the great things we accomplished right now," said Koniecko. "We'll have time to celebrate it and enjoy it but right now it's hard after losing, that's how competitors think. I told the team that we can leave the locker room with our head up high. We got to top 10 in the country, we got to go undefeated against Florida teams, just a lot of monumental things that happened to this program. Rebeka, Ksenia and Sara have obviously elevated this place and left it at a pretty good spot. It's a job for the new seniors to continue this trend."
FOLLOW THE KNIGHTS
Follow UCF Women's Tennis on social media on Facebook (/UCF.WTennis), Twitter (UCF_WTennis) and Instagram (UCFWTennis).
GET THE APP
Never miss any UCF Knights news from your favorite team by downloading the free UCF Knights app right to your iOS or Android phone! The app provides personalized information for men's and women's teams, scores, schedules, loyalty programs and even breaking news. Click here to download the app now.
