Jan. 31, 2015
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 26 University of Kentucky women’s tennis team won its fifth consecutive match with a dominating performance against the Penn State Nittany Lions Saturday at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex.
The 6-1 win gives the Wildcats a 5-1 record on the season, while Penn State drops to 0-4.
“The scores did not indicate the intensity of the match today,” UK head coach Carlos Drada said. “Penn State really came after us. They beat us in the doubles, and we did a great job of coming back, staying aggressive and taking care of business. One thing we’re trying to commit to as a team is to stay in the present and give our best effort on a consistent basis, point by point.”
Penn State jumped out to an early lead by taking the doubles point. At one time, the Nittany Lions led the No. 1 and No. 2 courts, 3-0. Edmee Morin-Kougoucheff and Kirsten Lewis defeated PSU’s Zuhse and Whiteaway on the No. 3 doubles court, 6-2, but it was not enough as PSU would go on to win the doubles point with the pairs of Nadia Ravita and Aldila Sutjiadi on court one and Kelsey Dieters and Mami Adachi on court two dropping both of their doubles contests.
Heading into singles, Kentucky trailed 1-0, but the Wildcats came out in strong fashion, winning all four first sets of the singles matches.
No. 125 Sutjiadi was the first to strike and gave the Wildcats their first point for the afternoon, winning her match, 6-2, 6-3, over Penn State’s Dasha Sapogova.
Adachi gave Kentucky a 2-1 lead after winning her match against Kimberley-Ann Surin, 6-3, 6-2 in the No. 4 matchup.
Dieters followed with a win of her own, defeating Katia Blik, 6-2, 7-5. The win on the No. 3 singles court increased Kentucky’s lead to 3-1. UK needed only one more singles win to clinch the victory.
After trailing 5-2 in the first set of her match on No. 1 singles, Ravita made an exhilarating comeback, winning four sets in a row to take a 6-5 lead. Ravita won the first set in a tiebreak and went on to win the match in three sets, 7-6, 5-7, 6-1. This clinched the victory over the Nittany Lions for Kentucky.
Lewis and Taylor Lederman played out their matches and both came out victorious in third-set tiebreaks. The Wildcats had a clean sweep of singles matches.
Kentucky is now 5-1 on the season and will host a doubleheader on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at Noon ET against Illinois and at 6 p.m. ET against Northern Kentucky. All matches will be held at the Hilary J. Boone Varsity Tennis Complex.
No. 26 Kentucky 6, Penn State 1
Hilary J. Boone Varsity Tennis Complex
January 31, 2014
Doubles (Order of finish: 3, 1, 2*)
1 – Victoria Kisialeva/Dasha Sapogova (PSU) def. #19 Nadia Ravita/Aldila Sutjiadi (UK), 6-1.
2 – Kimberley-Ann Surin/Devan McCluskey (PSU) def. Kelsey Dieters/Mami Adachi (UK), 6-2.
3 – Edmee Morin-Kougoucheff/Kirsten Lewis (UK) def. Jacqueline Zuhse/Katherine Whiteaway (PSU), 6-2.
Singles (Order of finish: 2, 4, 3, 1*, 5, 6)
1 – Nadia Ravita (UK) def. Victoria Kisialeva (PSU), 7-6, 5-7, 6-1
2 – #125 Aldila Sutjiadi (UK) def. Dasha Sapogova (PSU), 6-2, 6-3
3 – Kelsey Dieters (UK) def. Katia Blik (PSU), 6-2, 7-5
4 – Mami Adachi (UK) def. Kimberley-Ann Surin (PSU), 6-3, 6-2
5 – Kirsten Lewis (UK) def. Devan McCluskey (PSU), 6-7, 6-3, 1-0
6 – Taylor Lederman (UK) def. Taylor Shukow (PSU), 6-2, 4-6, 1-0
