UK Women’s Tennis Defeats DePaul, Moves Past NCAA First Round
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Senior Justina Mikulskyte clinched the match-winning point on her graduation day to hoist the No. 29 University of Kentucky women’s tennis team past DePaul in the NCAA First Round on Friday. The Wildcats improve to a 19-8 record in dual matches this season and will advance to the NCAA Second Round on Saturday, a 1 p.m. ET first serve at the University of Michigan Varsity Tennis Center.
It wasn’t until the singles competition that momentum would shift in favor of the UK women’s tennis team, crafting a 4- 1 victory over the Blue Demons.
The Wildcats got off to a slow start in the doubles division. On the third court, the underclassmen pair in freshman Alexis Merrill and sophomore Brianna Tulloch fell to Alina Kuzmenkova and Aspasia Avgeri on a 6-2 mark. Battling on courts Nos. 1 and 2, it was the veteran pair in 16th-ranked Justina Mikulskyte and Akvile Paražinskaite that felt the most pressure. The UK duo lost on the first court to Keisha Clousing and Lenka Antonijevic on 6-4 decision.
The doubles match on the second court retired as Wildcats’ Lesedi Jacobs and Anastasia Tkachenko led the match on 4-3 mark.
Looking to makeup ground in the singles division, redshirt junior Paražinskaite earned the first singles point. The Lithuania native, who is set to graduate on Sunday, recorded a 6-3, 6-3 mark over Kuzmenkova on court No. 3. Jacobs earned the next singles point from behind, when the redshirt sophomore rallied a 3-6, 6-0, 6-0 mark on the second court, defeating Avgeri. The singles point allowed UK to take its first lead in the dual match.
Junior Diana Tkachenko defeated Marija Jovicic on the fourth court on a set tiebreak, 6-2, 7-6 (2). The Russia native already owned the team’s best record in the singles division ahead of the dual match ans improved to a 17-4 overall record (.810). In addition, a consistent No. 5 competitor, Tkachenko filled the No. 4 post on Friday, improving to a 3-0 mark on the fourth court.
To seal the deal, senior No. 27 Mikulskyte rallied a 7-6 (1), 6-3 victory on the first court, defeating DePaul’s top player in Keisha Clousing. The Lithuania native boasts a 14-5 (.737) singles record ahead of the NCAA Second Round. Mikulskyte was scheduled to walk in UK’s graduation day on Friday.
The UK women’s tennis team will face the winner of No. 16 Michigan (18-5) and UIC (20-5) on Saturday at 1 p.m. Kentucky owns the all-time mark over Michigan, 8-5, while UK and UIC have never met in program history.
The Wildcats are scheduled to compete on the outdoor courts of the University of Michigan Varsity Tennis Center pending the weather, and live scoring will be available here.
2019 First and Second Round Schedule
Varsity Tennis Center – Ann Arbor, Mich.
Second Round – Saturday, May 4
No. 29 Kentucky vs. winner game 2 – 1 p.m.
For more on Kentucky women’s tennis, follow @UKWomensTennis on Twitter and Instagram, Kentucky Women’s Tennis on Facebook, or on the web at UKathletics.com.
