Sunday, February 10
Houston, Texas
11:00 am
Rice University
6
vs
1
Kansas State
Photo by: Maria Lysaker - Rice University
Owls Drop Wildcats
2/10/2019 3:28:00 PM | Women's Tennis
The Lead: The Rice women's tennis team improved to 2-0 on their current homestand with a 6-1 win over Kansas State on Sunday as part of a combined dual with the Rice men's team at the George R. Brown Tennis Center on Sunday.
Doubles: The Owls and Wildcats were locked in a tight battle for the first point of the match. The Owls gained the early edge when Michaela Haet and Linda Huang took a 6-4 decision at the first line and then took the early lead when 35th ranked Anastasia Smirnova and Priya Niezgoda won the final two games to take a 7-5 decision at the second line.
Singles: Rice picked up where they had finished in doubles by capturing five of six first sets in singles. Anna Bowtell and Anastasia Smirnova carried their momentum into singles, each losing just two games in straight-set wins to extend the Rice lead to 3-0 and Niezgoda delivered the clincher with a 6-1, 6-3 win on court six. Haet and Victoria Smirnova closed out the scoring for the Owls with wins on courts one and two.
Elizabeth Schmidt: "I thought we were a little sluggish in doubles. We didn't play that well, but credit to K-State for that. We stepped up when we needed to. Good players find a way to win when it's not their best day. We came out with really good energy in singles. We did a good job of rebounding after tough moments. In #1 doubles, we lost a couple games when we were up and #3 doubles didn't get to finish their match, but they both came out on fire in singles. It was similar to our last match (6-0 win over TCU on February 6), when there were ebbs, people stepped up. If it wasn't them, it was the person on the court next to them that helped them step up. It was a total team effort."
Next Up: Rice will close out its current homestand on Wednesday by hosting Texas A&M Corpus Christi at 3 p.m.
Doubles: The Owls and Wildcats were locked in a tight battle for the first point of the match. The Owls gained the early edge when Michaela Haet and Linda Huang took a 6-4 decision at the first line and then took the early lead when 35th ranked Anastasia Smirnova and Priya Niezgoda won the final two games to take a 7-5 decision at the second line.
Singles: Rice picked up where they had finished in doubles by capturing five of six first sets in singles. Anna Bowtell and Anastasia Smirnova carried their momentum into singles, each losing just two games in straight-set wins to extend the Rice lead to 3-0 and Niezgoda delivered the clincher with a 6-1, 6-3 win on court six. Haet and Victoria Smirnova closed out the scoring for the Owls with wins on courts one and two.
Elizabeth Schmidt: "I thought we were a little sluggish in doubles. We didn't play that well, but credit to K-State for that. We stepped up when we needed to. Good players find a way to win when it's not their best day. We came out with really good energy in singles. We did a good job of rebounding after tough moments. In #1 doubles, we lost a couple games when we were up and #3 doubles didn't get to finish their match, but they both came out on fire in singles. It was similar to our last match (6-0 win over TCU on February 6), when there were ebbs, people stepped up. If it wasn't them, it was the person on the court next to them that helped them step up. It was a total team effort."
Next Up: Rice will close out its current homestand on Wednesday by hosting Texas A&M Corpus Christi at 3 p.m.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,2
#1 Singles Match
12
Margot Decker / 0 [KSU]
43
66
#2 Singles Match
123
Ines Mesquita / 0 [KSU]
560
711
#3 Singles Match
12
Anna Turco / 0 [KSU]
20
66
#4 Singles Match
12
Maria Ponomareva / 0 [KSU]
02
66
#5 Singles Match
12
Karine-Marion Job / 0 [KSU]
76
64
#6 Singles Match
12
Ioana Gheorghita / 0 [KSU]
13
66
Order of Finish:
4,3,6,1,5
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
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