Kentucky women’s tennis suffered a disappointing upset defeat on the road against the Wichita State Shockers, falling 4-2.
Wichita State and Kentucky had a close matchup with Kentucky taking the win in the doubles section but being unable to take down Wichita in the singles matches.
The Wildcats would take the doubles win after the team of Ellie Eades and Elizabeth Stevens took the win in the first match 6-4 as well as the team of Julia Zhu and Asuncion Jadue taking a dominant win in the third match 6-0. The Shockers would take the win in the second doubles match as Zoe Hammond and Tess Bucher would go down 6-2.
Kentucky came into the singles matches commanding a 1-0 lead after taking the victory in the doubles matches by the dominating freshman and sophomore duo of Jadue and Zhu.
Eades and Stevens looked to continue their winning streak against the Shockers, though they could not withstand the storm against Giorgia Roselli and Tatyana Nikolenko. Eades would be defeated 6-1, 6-2 against Nikolenko and Stevens would go down 6-3, 6-4 against Roselli, ending her 10-game winning streak.
Zhu continued her great performance, picking up a win not only in doubles but singles as well after coming back from losing the first set 6-1. She would take the second and third sets in a dominant showing, winning the second set 6-2 and the third 6-0, giving Kentucky its first singles win of the night and tying the scoreboard 2-2.
Hammond looked to recover after suffering a rough defeat in her doubles match. Hammond would put on an impressive showing against No. 89 Xin Tong Wang, taking the first set 6-3. After a long-fought match, Hammond would end up losing the match. Wang would take the second set 6-3 and the set three 6-4, reclaiming the lead for the Shockers.
Jadue looked to continue her dominance in Wichita to keep Kentucky, alive but would fall short of her goal. Jadue would lose the first 6-3 against Anne Knuettel and, after a hard-fought second set, Knuettel would take it 7-6 after winning in the tiebreaker 7-2.
Kentucky would end up suffering its second loss of the season, going down against Wichita State 4-2. Kentucky now sits at 5-2 on the season.
The Cats will be back in action on Feb. 9, traveling from Wichita to Manhattan to take on the Kansas State Wildcats. The match will take place at 11 a.m. ET at the Body First Tennis Center.