Kansas tennis began its fall season on a positive note as sophomore Alie Dzuba brought home a first-place singles medal.

The team participated in the UNCW Collegiate Tennis Invitational in Wilmington, N.C., this weekend. Georgetown, North Carolina State, Furman and host team North Carolina-Wilmington also played in the tournament.

“The girls did well for our first tournament and everyone was excited to play,” Kansas coach Amy Hall-Holt said. “Overall we had a good showing and competed hard.”

Dzuba, who won the B2 bracket, led the Jayhawks in singles play. After an opening round 6-2, 6-3 victory against Furman University’s Brooke Mosteller, Dzuba cruised through her semifinal match against Casey Dashiell of UNCW, winning 6-2, 6-1. She concluded her sweep of the bracket with a 6-1, 5-7, 14-12 defeat of Georgetown’s Nora Montgomery in the final round.

“It feels really good because I’ve been working really hard at improving my game,” Dzuba said. “It was a great start and I think everyone played really well.”

Fellow sophomore Erin Wilbert also made a successful run through the tournament, but she fell just short of winning the B1 bracket.

Wilbert started her first two matches with victories against Georgetown’s Samantha Martin and Furman’s Jennifer Betts, winning 6-1, 6-1 and 7-5, 7-5, respectively. Her final round on Sunday proved to be the toughest, ending in a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Michele Stanford of Furman.

“I thought that I competed well and the girl that I played in the finals competed hard also,” Wilbert said. “So it was a good run, and I enjoyed it.”

Dzuba and Wilbert were the only two Kansas players to advance to the finals, and unfortunately for the Jayhawks, they were also the only ones to make it through the first round.

Sophomore Ekaterina Morozova and freshman Sara Lazarevic competed in the A1 bracket, which is usually comprised of a team’s top players. Both lost in the first round but garnered victories in their consolation rounds.

Senior Kuni Dorn and junior Maria Martinez followed the same path, coming back to win their consolation matches after dropping the first. Dorn competed in the A2 bracket while Martinez represented the B1 along with Wilbert. Martinez dominated in her second match, avenging her first loss with a 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Georgetown’s Alexandra Landers.

Rounding out the Jayhawk’s lineup were freshman Victoria Khanevskaya and junior Kate Goff.

Although the Jayhawks played in many of the same brackets, the format of the fall differs the regular season.

During the fall, competition is individually-based. In the spring, matches are played head-to-head in a duel style, with the focus on team wins. In the fall setup, players also compete in different brackets, based on their skill level.

Because only five teams were represented at the UNCW tournament, doubles play was condensed into one bracket.

Two Jayhawk pairs – Dorn/Martinez and Wilbert/Lazarevic – advanced through their first two rounds. Wilbert and Lazarevic were given a bye through the first round and then defeated Diana Mortlock and Chloe Smith of N.C. State. Dorn and Martinez narrowly escaped their first match in a tiebreaker against Oliva Maurice and Jessica Preeg of Furman, but followed with a decisive 8-2 victory against UNCW’s Kayla Schwenk and Christina Riley.

They weren’t the only Jayhawks to find success in the doubles bracket, however.

Morozova and Khanevskaya defeated the Georgetown tandem of Victoria Sekely and Alex Sebia 8-2, before falling to UNCW’s Dashiell and Leblang in a tiebreaker. The duo came back in the consolation, and won against Hartley Collins and Christina Lee of UNCW. Morozova and Khanevskaya concluded with an 8-6 victory against the Schwenk and Riley duo from UNCW that Dorn and Martinez beat in the second round.

Dzuba and Goff lost their first two doubles rounds to pairs from UNCW and Georgetown.

Overall, Hall-Holt was happy with the team’s performance, especially in doubles, but she said there was plenty of room for improvement.

“We have more work to do but that just comes with playing a lot of matches,” Hall-Holt said.

The Jayhawks will take the court again in two week when they host a tournament Sept. 25-27 at First Serve in Lawrence.

— — Edited by Nick Gerik