Women's Tennis Cats Hold Off Crimson Tide, 4-3
3/28/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
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Kentucky improved to 15-7 and 6-2 in the Southeastern Conference, while Alabama drops to 9-7 and 4-4 in league play.
Kentucky took a 1-0 lead by capturing a hotly-contested doubles point. After the Cats dropped the No. 3 doubles slot, freshman Sarah Foster and junior Aibika Kalsarieva won the remaining three games at No. 1 to earn a 9-7 win over Ashley Bentley and Robin Stephenson.
Kentucky played a great match and the battled us really hard,” Alabama head coach Jenny Mainz saind. We knew the doubles point would be important coming into the match and it was pivotal.
“It was a close, competitive match and we were just a little hesitant on the big points. We’ll bounce back and be ready for Arkansas and LSU next weekend.”
Kentucky freshmen Lara Maurer and Joelle Schwenk waged a battle at No. 2 against Millie Begovic and Melissa Minor and forced a tiebreaker, where they clinched the Wildcat doubles point.
In singles, Schwenk and Foster posted straight-set victories, each in less than an hour, at the three and four positions to put the Cats on top, 3-0. Alabama responded with straight-set wins at numbers two and five to pull within 3-2.
UK’s Kalsarieva and Alabama’s Stephenson split the first two sets at No. 1, sending the match to a decisive third set. Kalsarieva jumped out to a 4-1 lead and Stephenson pulled within 4-3 before Kalsarieva claimed the final two games to clinch the match.
Freshman Christine Simpson forced her match at No. 6 to a third set, where she fell in a 10-point super-tiebreaker to Alabama’s Mari Muller.
The Crimson Tide returns to action Friday with a road trip to Fayetteville, Ark to play the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Tide will take on LSU in Baton Rouge on Sunday.
No. 18 Kentucky 4, No. 22 Alabama 3
Doubles
1. Foster/Kalsarieva (UK) def. Bentley/Stephenson (UA) – 9-7
2. Maurer/Schwenk (UK) def. Begovic/Minor (UA) – 9-8 (4)
3. Koppelle/Muller (UA) def. Coventry/Simpson (UK) – 8-2
Singles
1. No. 23 Aibika Kalsarieva (UK) def. No. 37 Robin Stephenson (UA) – 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
2. Ashley Bentley (UA) def. Lara Maurer (UK) – 6-1, 6-1
3. Joelle Schwenk (UK) def. Nathalie Koppelle (UA) – 6-0, 6-0
4. No. 96 Sarah Foster (UK) def. Millie Begovic (UA) – 6-0, 6-2
5. Melissa Minor (UA) def. Kim Coventry (UK) – 6-1, 6-1
6. Mari Muller (UA) def. Christine Simpson (UK) – 7-5, 6-4, 1-0 (7)
