Tennis faces winless-in-conference Wildcats

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

The Jayhawks will be facing their rival, the Kansas State Wildcats, today at 3 p.m. in the Sunflower Showdown.

Kansas State is on a nine-match losing streak and has a conference record of 0-7, and today is almost a must-win if the Jayhawks plan to achieve coach Amy Hall-Holt’s goal of finishing in the top half of the conference. Last year this was accomplished with a conference record of 5-6; the squad is now 3-5 with three Big 12 matches remaining. The other two are against No. 31 Texas and No. 33 Texas A&M.

“Defeating Kansas State will be a great Big 12 win for us,” Hall-Holt said. “It is something that the girls take great pride in. Hopefully, they’ll take a lot of pride in the match against K-State.”

The Jayhawks should be fully aware of the fickleness of tennis. They have lost to teams that statistically they should have defeated but have also been on the edge of defeating some of the best teams in the nation.

“K-State is a tough team,” Hall-Holt said. “They’ve been struggling a little bit, but they always bring their A-game when they come out to play us. We definitely have to be mentally prepared for a tough K-State match.”

breakbox

All-time record Last Meeting Current streak

Kansas State 39-7 2008 Won 1

Tulane 1-1 1987 Lost 1

Last weekend the Jayhawks dropped two close matches: 5-2 to No. 3 Baylor, and 4-2 to No. 69 Texas Tech.

Even though junior Kuni Dorn and freshman Erin Wilbert were the only victorious KU players against Baylor, the match proved that Kansas could seriously challenge top squads. Senior Yuliana Svistun and sophomore Maria Martinez took their match to three sets, but they narrowly lost the doubles point 8-3, 8-6 and 8-7.

Hall-Holt said that all season she had emphasized the value of vigorous court play “because you never know when things are going to turn around, and things could have turned around majorly against Baylor. The match could have gone either way.”

“It should be a big win for us, but we can’t take any team for granted,” Hall-Holt said. “Every match is a big match for us here on out. We have got to keep building and keep preparing for each time we step out on the court,”

— — Edited by Chris Horn

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