No. 17 Kansas tops North Texas, 6-1

Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum returned a point during her 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 No. 2 singles win.

No. 17 Kansas 6, North Texas 1
Waranch Tennis Complex
Denton, Texas

March 19, 2017

 DOUBLES

No. 1 #50 Khmelnitckaia/Bernard-Feigenbaum (KU) vs. #77 Kutubidze/Kononova (NT) DNF 5-4
No. 2 Koch/Nikolaeva (KU) def. Heczey/Thoma (NT) 6-3
No. 3 Rychagova/Toran Ribes (KU) def. Liang/Babic (NT) 6-3

Order of Finish: 3,2

 SINGLES

No. 1 #82 Kononova (NT) def. #74 Rychagova (KU) 5-7, 6-3, 7-5
No. 20  Bernard-Feigenbaum (KU) def. Kutubidze (NT) 6-3, 2-6, 6-3
No. 3 Koch (KU) def. Thoma (NT) 6-3, 6-1
No. 4 Khmelnitckaia (KU) def. Heczey (NT) 6-2, 6-1
No. 5 Toran Ribes (KU) def. Liang (NT) 7-6 (9-7), 6-4
No. 6 Nikolaeva (KU) def. Sasaki (NT) 6-2, 7-5

Order of Finish: 4,3,5,6,2,1
 Stats Box Score (.PDF)

Denton, Texas – Kansas sophomore Nina Khmelnitckaia earned her fourth-consecutive singles win in the Jayhawks’ 6-1 match victory over North Texas Sunday at the Waranch Tennis Complex.
 
Khmelnitckaia cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Alexandra Heczey at the No. 4 spot and moved to 11-2 in spring play and 18-7 overall. Khmelnitckaia’s victory put Kansas up 2-0 after the Jayhawks won the doubles point.
 
“The last four matches we have started to compete as a full team in singles and doubles,” said head coach Todd Chapman. “We are learning that when you compete at a high level, you don’t have to play your best tennis to put yourself in positions to be successful.”
 
Anastasia Rychagova and Maria Toran Ribes won their sixth-straight doubles match after topping Minying Liang and Ivana Babic, 6-3, at the No. 3 spot. Playing on court two, Janet Koch and Tatiana Nikolaeva downed Heczey and Alexis Thoma, 6-3, to give Kansas the doubles point.
 
Playing at the No. 2 spot, Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum won her fifth match in a row in a three-setter against Tamuna Kutubidze, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 and improved to 10-3 in spring play and 19-7 overall. Koch topped Thoma on court three, 6-3, 6-1. Toran Ribes prevailed through a first set tiebreaker at the No. 5 spot to defeat Liang, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4. Nikolaeva also won her match after she downed Haruka Sasaki, 6-2, 7-5.
 
No. 74 Anastasia Rychagova wasn’t able to overcome the Mean Green’s No. 82-ranked player Maria Kononova and dropped the match, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5.
 
“This group is maturing on the court and it is fun to see the development take place,” said Chapman. “We will now head home and get ready to resume conference play next weekend.”
 
The Jayhawks will return to Lawrence and host West Virginia at 5 p.m., Friday, March 24 and Iowa State at 12 p.m., Sunday March 26 at the Jayhawk Tennis.
 
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