Friday, February 6, 2009
KU senior tennis player Yuliana Svistun has a certain style of winning. Since she joined the team in the spring of 2006 as a freshman, Svistun has been brandishing her style for weeks at a time, even months. And now she is doing it again.
“I’m starting a streak right now hopefully because I want to achieve what I did my sophomore year. I want to do that this year since it’s my last year,” Svistun said.
Senior Yuliana Svistun lunges forward to return a shot along the sideline of the court during a Feb. 1 match against Drake. Svistun and her doubles partner Ekaterina Morosova defeated Drake 8-3.
In the spring of 2007, Svistun won seven consecutive singles matches from Feb. 4 to March 10, which was followed by another streak (5-0) from April 1-18. In addition, that fall she posted a 7-0 stretch in which she became the 2007 Hoosier Classic Singles Champion.
breakbox
Kansas vs Illinois Today at 2 p.m. Champaign, Ill.
Kansas vs Illinois-Chicago Saturday at 12 p.m. Champaign, Ill.
Last weekend, the Jayhawk tennis team had three schools — UTEP, Drake and St. Louis — pay them a visit, and each one was sent back home with another loss on their record, resulting in a 3-0 start (best since 2000) of the season. The entire team contributed heavily to Kansas’ weekend sweep as senior Edina Horvath and sophomore Maria Martinez also began their streaks by going 3-0 in singles matches and 2-1 in doubles.
The Jayhawks currently lead the Big 12 standings with an overall record of 3-0. This weekend they will be shooting for 5-0 when they encounter Illinois and Illinois-Chicago in nonconference play in Champaign, Ill.
So why is the Svistun’s weekend performance worthy of distinction? Svistun has two streaks in progress: one is in singles (3-0) and one is in doubles (3-0). And her partner, freshman Kate Morozova, has a lot to do with the latter.
“We just like to play together. We just played well. We were very consistent for every ball. We had to work,” Morozova said.
The Russian duo compliments one another not just with words, but with court play.
“Kate is really fun to play with. I like to play with her because I like the speed and she is really powerful,” Svistun said.
The streaks are modest, but when you consider Svistun’s past, you realize the modesty may continue into March or perhaps April.
Before her sophomore success in 2007, Svistun created a jolt her freshman year by winning her first four singles matches and then embarked on a doubles winstreak (6-0) that lasted from January 28 to April 8, helping the squad to an 11-6 dual match record during that same time period. In 2008 she, along with Horvath and junior Kuni Dorn, assisted in achieving KU’s best conference record since 2002; all three had at least 10 dual match victories.
When asked if her undefeated singles streak will last this entire season, Julie laughed - but not so much to think it impossible.
“It’s gonna be fun. I think if I stay at the number five position it’s doable, but if coach decides to move me up to four or three, it’s gonna be a lot harder,” she said.
Wherever Svistun plays, she and the team will be doing it in style.
“We have great practices and great communication. The coaches do a lot for us. For every practice, they provide us with everything, and that helps a lot too,” Svistun said.
— — Edited by Sam Speer
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