No. 18 Kentucky earned the doubles point and fought off a late Alabama rally Sunday before prevailing by a 4-3 count Sunday at UK?s Boone Tennis Complex. Kentucky completes a weekend sweep of Auburn and Alabama and improves to 15-7 and 6-2 in the conference, while Alabama drops to 9-7 and 4-4.
Kentucky took a 1-0 lead by capturing a hotly-contested doubles point. After the Cats dropped the No. 3 doubles slot, freshman Sarah Foster and junior Aibika Kalsarieva won the remaining three games at No. 1 to earn a 9-7 win over Ashley Bentley and Robin Stephenson. Kentucky freshmen Lara Maurer and Joelle Schwenk waged quite a battle at No. 2 against Millie Begovic and Melissa Minor and forced a tiebreaker, where they clinched the Wildcat doubles point.
Schwenk and Foster posted straight-set victories, each in less than an hour, at the three and four positions to put the Cats on top, 3-0. Alabama responded with straight-set wins at numbers two and five to pull within 3-2. UK?s Kalsarieva and Alabama?s Stephenson split the first two sets at No. 1, sending the match to a decisive third set. Kalsarieva jumped out to a 4-1 lead and Stephenson pulled within 4-3 before Kalsarieva claimed the final two games to clinch the match. Freshman Christine Simpson forced her match at No. 6 to a third set, where she fell in a 10-point super-tiebreaker.
The Cats return to the Boone Tennis Complex for another pair of home matches next weekend, playing host to No. 4 Georgia and No. 26 Tennessee.
No. 18 Kentucky 4, No. 22 Alabama 3
Doubles 1. Foster/Kalsarieva (UK) def. Bentley/Stephenson (UA) ? 9-7 2. Maurer/Schwenk (UK) def. Begovic/Minor (UA) ? 9-8 (4) 3. Koppelle/Muller (UA) def. Coventry/Simpson (UK) ? 8-2
Singles 1. No. 23 Aibika Kalsarieva (UK) def. No. 37 Robin Stephenson (UA) ? 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 2. Ashley Bentley (UA) def. Lara Maurer (UK) ? 6-1, 6-1 3. Joelle Schwenk (UK) def. Nathalie Koppelle (UA) ? 6-0, 6-0 4. No. 96 Sarah Foster (UK) def. Millie Begovic (UA) ? 6-0, 6-2 5. Melissa Minor (UA) def. Kim Coventry (UK) ? 6-1, 6-1 6. Mari Muller (UA) def. Christine Simpson (UK) ? 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (7)
