Akvile Paražinskaite Falls in Singles Championship
ORLANDO – Kentucky women’s tennis standout Akvile Paražinskaite fell 6-1, 6-0 in the opening round of the NCAA Singles Tournament on Sunday at the UTSA National Campus in Orlando. Paražinskaite was making her first ever appearance in the singles field and fell to North Carolina’s Alexa Graham.
Paražinskaite will resume action on Monday alongside Fiona Arrese in the doubles’ tournament. UK’s duo is rated as the No. 1 overall seed in the event and will take on Brooke Killingsworth and Anna Brylin of Wake Forest. Live stats can be found here, while video will be provided by the TennisOne app.
This marks the second appearance for Paražinskaite in the doubles draw. She paired with Justina Mikulskyte in 2019, but the duo dropped its opening-round match. Arrese is making the first appearance of her career in the event as a freshman.
Paražinskaite and Arrese were the Southeastern Conference’s automatic qualifiers in the 32-team doubles tournament.
The duo is the first doubles tandem to earn a No. 1 overall seed entering the tournament under head coach Carlos Drada. The 2016 pair of Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi held the ITA No. 1 ranking but were seeded No. 2 for the tournament.
Amy Trefethen and Sarah Witten in 2003 made the deepest run of any doubles pair in program history when they finished as the national runner-up.
All matches shall be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a 7-point tiebreaker (first to seven points, must win by two points) at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
UK’s duo has amassed a 20-4 overall record on the season, including a 17-4 mark in dual competition. Kentucky’s top-rated squad was 11-1 in SEC play.
Wake’s Killingsworth and Brylin are ranked as the No. 24 tandem in the country and own a 13-7 record.
With today’s loss in singles, Paražinskaite concluded the season with a 20-12 overall record on the year.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s tennis program, follow @UKWomensTennis on Twitter and on Instagram, on Facebook and on the web at UKathletics.com.
