ORLANDO – The UCF women’s tennis team opens its first postseason as members of the Big 12 Conference Wednesday evening, as it faces familiar opponent Kansas. The two, who went head-to-head just three days ago, will square off once more in Stillwater, Oklahoma at the 2024 Big 12 Tennis Championship. The opening round has an anticipated first serve time of 7 p.m. ET.
UCF received the eighth seed in the tournament after a 7-6 record in conference play.
LAST TIME OUT
The Knights capped off their regular season with back-to-back wins on the road over Iowa State and No. 54 Kansas. After capturing the doubles point from Iowa State, Olivia Lincer and Sophia Biolay earned big wins in Ames, Iowa, to secure the sweep. Lincer defeated her Cyclone opponent 6-3, 6-2 to bounce back from a difficult loss to No. 1 Oklahoma State. Biolay, the lone Knight to win in both doubles and singles play, played at the top singles court for the first time since mid-February and dominated from the jump. She took a straight-set victory (6-0, 6-2) for her second career win at No. 1.
The clash with Kansas proved to be more difficult than the 4-0 sweep over Iowa State. Kansas quickly took the doubles point, but the Black and Gold retaliated in singles, taking five first sets, including two 6-0 blanks at courts one and three. Thanks to a strong 6-0, 7-5 win at court three from Lincer, the Knights evened the overall tally at one point all. Lincer collected four wins in her first conference play season at courts two and three. UCF took the advantage at court two after a straight-set 6-3, 6-2 victory from Noel Saidenova, who wrapped up conference play on an eight-match unbeaten streak. Biolay put the Black and Gold one point closer to the clinch at No. 1 with a 6-0, 7-6(3) win over No. 103 Gracie Mulville for her third ranked win of the season and fourth of her collegiate career. Anique Kattenberg clinched the match (4-3) for the first time this season, topping her opponent at court five in a three-set thriller (7-5, 5-7, 6-2).
KNIGHTS IN THE POLLS
For the first time in the 2024 season, UCF has two student-athletes ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association singles poll. Going 1-0 in singles at the second position, Saidenova has remained in the rankings for the second-consecutive week for the first time in her career, shifting to No. 103 in the singles rankings. Biolay earned two straight-set singles wins at No. 1, including a clinching victory and ranked triumph, and has reentered the singles poll as the 125th-ranked singles player in the country. The junior previously peaked at No. 106 in the rankings on March 6. With the clean sweep on the weekend, the Knights have jumped to No. 50 in the latest ITA team poll.
RECORD SETTERS
A number of Knights have broken their single season win records during the 2024 campaign in both singles and doubles competition. With two wins at the top singles position this past weekend, Biolay eclipsed her single-season wins record in singles, previously set in the 2023 dual-matches season at 10, racking up 12 singles wins so far. Kattenberg also set a record for herself in both singles and doubles with nine and eight wins, respectively. In 2023, she amassed six singles and four doubles victories. Also with 12 singles victories in dual match play is Saidenova, four more wins than her previous record set in her freshman season. Tilbuerger has more than quadrupled her wins tally from last year with nine on the season.
TOURNEY SUCCESS
The Knights have largely been successful in postseason conference tournaments in recent years, advancing to the finals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament two of the past three years. During the 2023 season, the squad swept both Houston and Memphis 4-0 en route to the tournament finals. UCF brought home the conference championship in 2019 and 2020, only dropping two matches in the march to the back-to-back trophies.
SCOUTING THE JAYHAWKS
Kansas is a very familiar opponent for the UCF squad, who closed out the regular season with a battling 4-3 victory in Lawrence. After losing to Biolay on court one Sunday, Melville dropped in the latest ITA singles rankings to No. 110, as she remains the lone Jayhawk in the singles poll. KU swept Wichita State and Houston Friday night, 4-0, to shift to 10-13 overall and 6-7 in conference play. Kyoka Kubo continues to lead the charge for Kansas, with a 11-0 record at court four. She was a perfect 3-0 in singles matches over the weekend, including a 6-0, 6-0 win over Wichita State Friday afternoon.
Kansas remained steady in the most recent ITA team poll at No. 54 and received the ninth seed in the 2024 Big 12 Tennis Championship.
This will be the third all-time meeting between the schools and second this season. UCF holds the all-time advantage, 2-0.
The winner of the match will advance to play No. 1 Oklahoma State Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.