Women's Tennis Sweeps Iowa State, 4-0Women's Tennis Sweeps Iowa State, 4-0

Women's Tennis Sweeps Iowa State, 4-0

by Logan Hasselbach

AMES, Iowa – The UCF women’s tennis team bounced back to sweep Iowa State on the road, just days after a difficult loss to No. 1 Oklahoma State. Highlighted by another strong performance in singles play, the Knights earned a 4-0 victory in their penultimate regular season contest.

The Cyclones only fielded five available student-athletes, so UCF jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, as well as a one court advantage in doubles. Doubles play proved to be a battle, with Iowa State striking first, taking court one 6-4. With each team having one court, it all came down to Sophia Biolay and Jantje Tilbuerger at court two. Deadlocked at six games apiece, the doubles point was sent to a tiebreak. Biolay and Tilbuerger kept their foot on the gas, taking the match and doubles point 7-6(2).

Out to a 2-0 overall match lead, the Knights continued to apply pressure to the Cyclones in the first sets of the singles matches. In the five first sets that were played, UCF won all five to get one step closer to the match victory. The first member of the Black and Gold to strike was Biolay, playing at the top singles position for the first time since February. The junior had a stellar first set, blanking her opponent 6-0, and never took her eyes off the goal of adding another point to the match tally. Her Iowa State opponent applied more pressure in the second set, but Biolay remained steady to take the match 6-0, 6-2 and put UCF up 3-0.

With just one additional court needed to take the match, the fight was on to close out the match. Freshman phenom Olivia Lincer put the cherry on top of the match with her third singles win of conference season. After taking the first set 6-3 at court three, she closed out the match with a strong 6-2 second set for her second clinching point of the season.

With the match clinched, the remaining courts went unfinished. Tilbuerger, who was leading one set to none at court four when the match was clinched, has continued her undefeated conference streak, spanning the entirety of conference play. No. 97 Noel Saidenova also strengthened her unbeaten streak to seven matches, with the contest at court two ending unfinished at 6-3, 3-4.

The Knights have won five of their last six conference matches, sweeping two Big 12 Conference opponents in that span.

UP NEXT

UCF looks to close out its inaugural Big 12 regular season in the win column, heading to Lawrence, Kan. to play Kansas. The Sunday match is slated to kick off at 1 p.m. ET.