Kansas falls to Oklahoma State in Big 12 Tournament Quarterfinals, 4-0

Box Score 

WACO, Texas – After a two hour rain-delay and change of venue, the Kansas women’s tennis team was not able to pull off an upset in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tennis Tournament, falling 4-0 to Oklahoma State, Friday morning. Due to inclement weather, match play began with singles where Oklahoma State claimed wins on a majority of the courts ending Kansas’ season.

The Jayhawks finish with an 8-15 record, but their 4-5 record in Big 12 Conference play placed them sixth in the league, KU’s highest finish since 2008. KU appeared in the Big 12 quarterfinals for the third-straight year, the first time that’s happened since 2002.

“First off, I give a lot of credit to Oklahoma State I think they played really well today,” said head coach Todd Chapman. “I think during the first 30-to-40 minutes of the match we had a lot of chances. There were a lot of big points that they outplayed us on, some silly errors and a lot of duece games that went against us. I think Oklahoma State did a great job of playing with leads at that point and kind of loosened up. They played well and took it too us at a couple of spots. I thought we played hard and had chances but there is a reason they’ve (Oklahoma State) been top-10 in the country all season. They can play the big points and this may be sort of an experience for us.”

Oklahoma State immediately set the pace taking early leads and clinching first set victories on four out of the six courts in play. Freshman Summer Collins finished first on court five and was bested in straight-sets 6-2, 6-1 by Oklahoma State’s Carla Tur Mari to give OSU a, 1-0, lead. Court six finished second with freshman, Alexis Czapinski unable to overcome a dominant performance by Oklahoma State’s Maria Alvarez losing in straight-sets 6-3, 6-4.

With a 2-0 lead, Katarina Adamovic ousted Smith Hinton in two-sets 6-3, 6-3. Hinton came out strong, gaining a 2-1 lead in the first-set before Adamovic rallied back to steal the first-set and ultimately the match.

Court one would seal the match for Oklahoma State as senior Maria Belen Luduena, appearing in the last match of her Kansas career, came out with high energy taking a 2-0 lead over OSU’s Viktoriya Lushkova before the momentum swung in favor of Lushkova resulting in a 6-3, 6-4 loss for Luduena.

In her third match removed from injury junior, Maria Jose Cardona energized the young team by stealing the second-set of her match after dropping the first against Karyn Guttormsen and leading 1-0 in the third-set before the match was called.

“I feel like this has been a year of growth,” Chapman said of the team. “We are really young and played a majority of the year with four freshman, maybe five in the line up. The one thing they gave me all year was effort. They had both feet in and cared a lot about what was going on. I feel like we got a lot better and grew as people and competitors. I also think their tennis game got better. A lot of close matches, but I think a learning experience for them and myself as a coach.”

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