Alabama
Kentucky
Women's Tennis Falls to No. 18 Kentucky, 4-3
3/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The No. 9 Alabama women's tennis team suffered its first home loss of the 2015 season on Friday night, dropping the conference match to the No. 18 Kentucky Wildcats by a final score of 4-3. Kentucky handed Alabama just its third doubles loss of the season to begin the match, and outlasted the Tide in the third set of the final singles court to secure the victory. With the loss, Alabama drops to 13-5 on the season, including a 5-4 record against SEC foes. Kentucky (15-6, 6-2 SEC) has now won four straight matches, and eight of its last ten overall.
Kentucky got off to a fast start, claiming the doubles point with victories on courts one and two. Alabama's Danielle Spielmann and Luicelena Perez won their match 8-4 on court three to begin doubles play, but Kentucky answered with an 8-6 win on court one, ahead of a point-clinching 8-5 victory on court two. Kentucky's court one paring of Aldila Sutjiadi and Mami Adachi handed No. 4 Erin Routliffe and Maya Jansen their first loss (15-1) of the 2015 season.
Minutes after the start of singles play, inclement weather forced a suspension of play and the two teams would finish the remainder of the match on the indoor courts. Initially, the location change appeared to alter the momentum as well, as the Tide took two of the first three completed singles matches. Emily Zabor, playing on court six for the first time this season, earned a quick 6-1, 6-1 victory to even the score at 1-1. Kentucky would earn the next point with a 6-3, 6-2 win on court one, but Danielle Spielmann answered for the Tied with a 6-2, 6-4 win on court two to deadlock the score at 2-2.
Kentucky and Alabama would exchange points again, as Adachi knocked off Natalia Maynetto 7-5, 6-1 on court four, before Maya Jansen earned her team-leading 12th singles victory of the season, a 6-2, 7-6(4) decision on court three.
With the score tied at 3-3, the match would come down to the court five battle between Kentucky's Kirsten Lewis and Alabama's Luice Perez. After exchanging 7-5 scores in the opening two sets, the match would be decided in a third and final set.
Perez and Lewis swapped games to open the final set, before Perez would take two consecutive games to move ahead 3-1. Lewis then began to rally for the Wildcats, taking back-to-back games to knot the score at 3-3. Perez grabbed her fourth game to move ahead 4-3, but Lewis took the final three games to secure a 6-4 victory and clinch the match for the Wildcats.
The Tide will be back in action on Sunday when it faces the No. 10 Vanderbilt Commodores at 1:00 p.m. CT at the Alabama Tennis Stadium. The Commodores have all three of their doubles team nationally ranked - including three in the Top 25 - and have five of their six singles players ranked. Vanderbilt owns a 17-22 all-time advantage in the series history.
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Players Mentioned
