No. 22 UK Women’s Tennis Falls at Home to No. 5 Vanderbilt
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Opening the dual match by clinching the doubles point for the second straight time, the No. 22 University of Kentucky women’s tennis team fell to No. 5 Vanderbilt on Friday at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center, 4-3. The Wildcats, now 15-5 on the season and 5-4 in conference play, brought the dual match down to the wire, but came up short in the final singles match.
The Wildcats started the day off strong, clinching the doubles point on two of the three doubles matches over the Commodores. In their season debut as a pair, redshirt-sophomore Lesedi Jacobs and junior Anastasia Tkachenko finished first in doubles on court three, upsetting No. 37 Summer Dvorak and Fernanda Contreras on a 6-3 outcome.
Shortly following the success of Jacobs and A. Tkachenko, the set on court two concluded in another UK victory. Freshman Tiphanie Fiquet and junior Diana Tkachenko took on the 49th-ranked duo in Georgia Drummy and Christina Rosca resulting in a 6-4 UK win. It clinched the doubles point for the Wildcats, with the singles division to follow.
Kentucky still had a test ahead, as Vanderbilt boasts five players in the ITA/Oracle Top 125 National Singles Rankings. Court No. 2 finished first, where No. 62 Georgia Drummy defeated Jacobs in a 6-3, 6-2 conclusion. Following it was sixth-ranked Fernanda Contreras defeating No. 35 Justina Mikulskyte in a 7-5, 6-2 result.
Continuing with the stride, Vanderbilt collects a third singles point on court three with 13th-ranked Christina Rosca earning a victory over UK’s Akvile Paražinskaite on a 7-6, 7-5 finish. This put the Commodores up 3-1.
Kentucky quickly rallied back, with the help of a win on court four. Freshman Fiquet fired from behind on a 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 defeat over the 53rd-ranked Amanda Meyer of Vanderbilt. Shortly following, A. Tkachenko took the 7-6, 6-3 victory over Summer Dvorak on court No. 6 to tie the dual match.
In the end, Vanderbilt finished victoriously with Carolyn Campana’s win over UK’s D. Tkachenko. Though, Tkachenko took the first set 2-6, she came up short in the following sets on results of 6-4, 7-5.
The Kentucky women’s tennis team will be back in action next weekend for two home matches – Ole Miss on Friday, April 5 (Breast Cancer Awareness Match) and Mississippi State on Sunday, April 7 (Senior Day). The matches are set to return to the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center with Friday’s first serve set for 5 p.m. ET and Sunday’s first serve set for 1 p.m. ET.
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.
