Tennis has a good start, but faded
The Jayhawk Invitational started well, but ended sour.
Monday, September 29th, 2008
The Jayhawks had an explosive start to its three-day Jayhawk Invitational this weekend. The team’s first home tournament — something new for everybody on the team, since usually it doesn’t have a tournament at home — was a major success as the team finished strong the first two days.
To start off the tournament, seniors Yuliana Svistun and Edina Horvath each won their singles matches and a doubles match.
After watching the older players, the rest of the team glided along its opponents effortlessly and continued to use its agility and aggression to knock out other teams.
The four doubles teams performed well together and each set blew the opponents out of the water. Sophomore Maria Martinez and freshman Erin Wilbert defeated Arizona State with an 8-4 victory. As well as Kuni Dorn and Horvath, who earned a victory over Air Force 8-4. The other doubles cycles, partners Svistun and Kate Morozova and Kate Goff and Allie Dzuba each had an 8-3 victory against UMKC proving the Jayhawks strength in doubles once and for all.
Throughout the first day, the singles matches seemed to favor the Jayhawks. The benefit of having a tournament at home, beside having a home-court advantage, was the support of friends and family. Seeing familiar faces in the crowd appeared to be the driving force for the team’s overall performance.
Five out of eight players were undefeated on the first day, which consisted of singles and doubles matches — a feat that is worthy of consideration when watching the young team in just its second tournament of the season before the spring.
“It is harder than the spring because you have to concentrate on playing more matches in a day than in the spring where you concentrate on just a singles or doubles game,” Martinez said.
On the second day of the Invitational, Martinez continued to shut out her opponents and led the team as the only player still undefeated. “I was playing a little more aggressively and my positioning on the court helped,” Martinez said. Martinez beat her opponent, Andrea Straznicka of Kansas State University with 6-3 and 6-0 victories, then had to defeat her own teammate, Svistun. Martinez and her doubles partner, Wilbert defeated Kansas State 8-6 and overpowered Air Force 8-0.
However, things started to head south for the team as Horvath, Dorn and Dzuba each lost their only match of the day, falling just short of a victory. Still, the Hawks had a team record of 6-5 in singles play, with the help of Martinez. Sadly, the luck ran out for the Hawks by the time Sunday rolled around and only two players won in singles play during the consolation round. Svistun defeated Arizona State (6-1, 6-4) and Dzuba defeated University of Missouri-Kansas City (6-0, 6-1).
Still, the team won’t be pining away at the losses, but instead learn from the experience of playing different teams and make the necessary changes before the next tournament comes around.
“Today’s match was pretty tough because the girl was from Nebraska and played really aggressive,” Martinez said after her singles match.
The tennis team’s next tournament will be the ITA Central Regional Tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah from Oct. 16 through Oct. 19.
— Edited by Ramsey Cox
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