Jayhawks Shine Early at First Day of ITA Regionals

NORMAN, Okla. – With each Jayhawk earning themselves a win, the Kansas women’s tennis team rose to the challenge early in the first round at the ITA Central Regionals Thursday at the Headington Family Tennis Center.

It has been more than one month since the Jayhawk’s last tournament in Midland, Texas, and Head Coach Todd Chapman was impressed in the improvement of the squad as they swept the first round.

“I thought we started off really well in our first round matches,” said Chapman. “I was really impressed with the way we handled ourselves when we had leads. I thought we played some really good second sets in the first round.”

Four Jayhawks competed in the tournament’s qualifying rounds in hopes of meeting fellow teammate Maria Jose Cardona in the tournaments main draw that begins Friday, Oct. 18.

To start off the first round of qualifiers, senior Paulina Los set the tone with a win against Missouri’s Tracy Dong defeating her 6-4, 6-1. The winning streak continued as sophomore Anastasija Trubica picked up a win against Oral Robert’s Melanie Martin (6-3, 6-0) and senior Dylan Windom defeated Cassidy Crawford of Central Arkansas (6-3, 6-0).

Maria Belen Ludueña who had a bye in the first round, joined her teammates in the second round of qualifiers. Ludueña was the only Jayhawk to snag a win in the second round from opponent Mia Frogner of Southern Illinois University- Edwardsville (6-3, 6-3). Windom was defeated by Iasmin Rosa of South Dakota State (6-3, 6-3) and Trubica fell to Whitney Wofford of Oklahoma (6-5, 6-1).

In a match that ended in a super tie-breaker, Los battled hard against Minnesota’s Jessika Mozia for a spot in championship’s main draws. Los, who lost in the first set, but then responded with a win in the second, took Mozia to a tie-breaker that resulted in a loss (4-6, 7-6, 1-0 (7)).

“I was very pleased with the way Paulina Los played today,” said Chapman. “I thought she competed as hard as I’ve seen her compete all year, she did lose her second match but she had two tough matches today and was in a great spot in all four sets today. I couldn’t be more pleased with how she competed, hopefully we’ll get that same effort from Paulina the rest of the year.”

With a possible storm rolling into Norman, Okla., singles and doubles matches are planned to resume Friday pending weather conditions. The doubles matches will begin Friday morning followed by the start of the singles main draw. Ludueña and Cardona will represent Kansas in the main draw of the championships, with Cardona taking on Wichita State’s Julia Schiller and Ludueña versus Abbi Melrose of Oklahoma.

“We’re looking for Ludueña and Cardona to carry the torch for us in singles,” said Chapman. “I think they have the game style and the way they’re playing right now, I’m happy with it. So hopefully they both can make a run in the singles draw.”

In the doubles match-ups, the team of Windom and Los will take on Simona Horsikyan and Cassidy Crawford of Central Arkansas followed by Cardona and Ludueña challenging Madison Cook and Brooke Urzendowski of Saint Louis University.

“I think we definitely have opportunities to be successful in the draws we have with doubles,” said Chapman. “There’s a certain style that I’m looking for us to play and that we’ve been working on in practice and that’s being aggressive and looking to dictate the base of play in doubles and we’ll definitely be looking for that.”

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