UK women’s tennis wins fifth straight
The UK Tennis team gathers at the Hillary J Boone Tennis Center in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday, January 31, 2015. Photo by John Paul Williams
February 2, 2015
By Lamar Smith
UK women’s tennis notched its fifth straight win on Saturday by defeating Penn State 6-1 at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex.
After being down early due to a loss in the doubles contest, the Cats rallied and swept the Nittany Lions in the singles matches to secure the win.
The game-sealing match came in the No. 1 singles court, which had UK junior Nadia Ravita going up against Penn State junior Victoria Kisialeva. Ravita trailed in the first set 5-2 before winning four straight and eventually the tiebreak. Ravita then led the second set 5-2 before losing the next five to force a third set.
Ravita’s confidence didn’t waiver, however, even after giving up the big set lead.
“I just thought ‘I have to give it my best and I have to win this match,’” Ravita said. “My teammates are depending on me to win my match.”
Ravita would go on to win her third set 6-1 to give UK the team victory. The match between went on for nearly two hours.
“I thought I played well. There are times I kind of dropped (my swing) a little bit so I tried to stay neutral to the ball or higher,” Ravita said. “(Kisialeva) was really good, so it wasn’t an easy win. I had to work for it.”
Freshman Mami Adachi, sophomore Aldila Sutjiadi and senior Kelsey Dieters all won their matches in straight sets earlier, with Dieters last set win being a tiebreaker. Adachi, the reigning SEC Freshman of the Week, has now won five consecutive singles matches without dropping a set.
Junior Kirsten Lewis and sophomore Taylor Lederman finished their singles matches with a win after UK had already sealed the victory over Penn State.
Head coach Carlos Drada was proud of how the team responded in the singles matches after giving up the doubles point.
“The score today does not indicate the intensity of the matches. Penn State came out after us and they beat us in the doubles,” Drada said. “That usually creates a lot of tension for any team and we did a good job of staying in the present and taking care of business.”
UK will face Illinois and Northern Kentucky in a home doubleheader on Tuesday. The match against Illinois will begin at noon while Northern Kentucky’s will start at 6 p.m.
