Rice University
Kentucky
Wildcats Strike Quickly, Down Owls 4-0
1/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
The Rice women's tennis team could not overcome a slow start in doubles and dropped a 4-0 decision to Kentucky in the opening round of the 2015 ITA Kickoff Weekend at the Combe Tennis Center on the campus of Northwestern University on Saturday.
The 21st ranked Owls (1-1) will take on host Northwestern in a 10 a.m. consolation match on Sunday morning. The 17th ranked Wildcats dropped a 4-3 decision to Arizona State. ASU and Kentucky will face off later on Sunday looking to advance to the ITA National Indoor Championship.
"Congrats to Kentucky on a well-played match," Rice head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said. "These early season tests are good because we see where we are and what areas we can to continue to work on to improve. Tomorrow is another great opportunity and we are looking forward to getting back out there. "
Kentucky moved quickly to grab the doubles point, taking matches on courts 2 & 3 by scores of 6-2 and 6-1. They carried that momentum over into singles, taking first sets on four of six courts.
Rice senior Natalie Beazant and junior Solo Zinko each ground out first set tiebreakers to give the Owls some life and freshman Savannah Durkin rallied back from a first set loss to win the last three games in her second set and fend off the match clinching point.
But the Wildcats secured the match with wins on courts 2, 3 and 4 to pick up the win.
#21 Rice vs. #44 Kentucky
Results
Singles
No. 1 - #24 Natalie Beazant (Rice) vs. Nadia Ravita (UK), 7-6, 5-2 (unfinished)
No. 2 - #125 Aldila Sutjiadi (UK) def. Katherine Ip (Rice), 6-3, 6-1
No. 3 - Kelsey Dieters (UK) def. Liat Zimmermann (Rice), 6-4, 6-3
No. 4 - Mami Adachi (UK) def. Alison Ho (Rice), 6-4, 6-1
No. 5 - Kirsten Lewis (UK) vs. Savannah Durkin (Rice), 6-4, 4-6 (unfinished)
No. 6 - Solomiya Zinko (Rice) vs. Edmee Morin-Kougoucheff (UK), 7-6, 2-3 (unfinished)
Order of Finish: 2, 4, 3*
Doubles
No. 1 - Beazant/Zimmermann (Rice) vs. #19 Ravita/Sutjiadi (UK), 5-3 (unfinished)
No. 2 - Dieters/Adachi (UK) def. Ho/Zinko (Rice), 6-2
No. 3 - Morin-Kougoucheff/Lewis (UK) def. Nguyen/Ip (Rice), 6-1
Order of Finish: 3, 2*
Players Mentioned
