Akvile Paražinskaite and Fiona Arrese Set for Singles, Doubles
ORLANDO – The NCAA Division I Singles and Doubles Championships are set to begin on Sunday at the UTSA National Campus, and the University of Kentucky women’s tennis program will once again be represented in the elite field. Akvile Paražinskaite is among the 64-player singles field and will pair with Fiona Arrese to form the No. 1 doubles team in the 32-team doubles draw.
Paražinskaite will open her postseason slate on Sunday at 10 a.m. ET. She’ll take on North Carolina’s Alexa Graham. The UK doubles team will make its first-round appearance on Monday, a time has yet to be announced, and will face 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. Paražinskaite will make her debut in the singles draw in 2021. Arrese is also 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.
In singles action, Paražinskaite leads the way for the Wildcats. The graduate student from Vilnius, Lithuania, has occupied the No. 1 slot for UK all season. Paražinskaite is 17-7 on the year in dual matches with a 6-6 record against ranked foes.
Notable victories include an upset of South Carolina’s No. 39 Nia Horvit by a 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 margin. She swept Tennessee’s No. 56 Eleonora Molinaro 6-2, 6-4 in the upset of the 19th-ranked Volunteers. Paražinskaite also defeated Vanderbilt’s Christina Rosca 6-2, 7-5 when Rosca was rated No. 20 in the country. She also has logged wins over No. 62 Selin Ovunc (6-2, 6-4) of Ole Miss and No. 41 Taylor Bridges (4-6, 6-2, 6-2) of LSU.
Paražinskaite has ascended to No. 28 in the country with an overall record of 20-11 which includes fall action. She’ll take on Graham who is the No. 41 ranked player with a 12-2 dual record.
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.
