Tennis loses eighth-straight match

Monday, April 23, 2007

It didn’t feel like this team had just lost its eighth-straight match.

Moments after Kansas fell 7-0 to Texas A&M to fall to 4-16 and 2-9 in the Big 12 Conference, the team broke the post-game huddle with an overly enthusiastic “Jayhawks.” It wasn’t just the players, coach Amy Hall-Holt gave her players a thumbs up for effort after playing the No. 21st ranked team in the country.

“A&M is ranked 21st in the nation, and we were out there and we competed with them today,” Hall-Holt said. “It’s been a trying year, but ending it today the way we did, I couldn’t be happier.”

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We’re clicking now. We won a couple matches, and we just had nothing to lose today.

- junior Lauren Hommell

Kansas secured its lone victory against Texas A&M with a victory from junior Lauren Hommell and freshman Kunigunda Dorn at the No. 2 doubles spot. With newfound confidence Hommell and Dorn picked up an 8-7 victory in a close tiebreaker.

“We’re clicking now,” Hommell said, “We won a couple matches, and we just had nothing to lose today.”

The Jayhawks were unable to gain a point from doubles when both the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles duos were defeated. Junior Elizaveta Avdeeva and sophomore Edina Horvath fell 8-4 at the No. 1 spot, and junior Stephanie Smith and sophomore Yuliana Svistun lost 8-4.

Down 1-0 going into the singles portion of the match, Kansas watched as Texas A&M turned up the intensity and won six singles matches in a row. Horvath and Smith both lost hard-fought three-set matches at No. 2 and No. 6 singles respectively. Horvath dropped the first set 6-2, but fought back to even the match with a 6-2 victory in the second set. Horvath ran out of gas in the decisive third set, falling 6-4.

“In the third set I played hard,” Horvath said. “But I felt I was a little bit tired, and I just started to miss a little bit.”

The closest match of the day came in the last one, with Stephanie Smith falling in a 3rd set tiebreaker. In a back and forth tie-breaker, Smith fell just short falling 11-9 in the tiebreaker after splitting the first two sets.

In the other singles matches, Svistun had a rare loss at No. 5 singles, dropping her Big 12 record to 9-3. Avdeeva, Dorn and Hommell all fell in straight sets at No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 respectively.

Despite the lopsided 7-0 score, Hall-Holt expressed delight in the fresh start the team has in Thursday’s Big 12 Championships.

“I told all the girls that if we take this energy level in to the Big 12 Championships, we can do some damage,” she said.

Kansan sportswriter Rustin Dodd can be contacted at rdodd@kansan.com.

— Edited by Lisa Tilson

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