Kentucky womens tennis suffers first road loss of season against Penn State
Carla Girbau hits the ball across the net during the University of Kentucky vs. Tennessee women’s tennis match on Sunday, March 28, 2021, at Hillary J. Boone Tennis Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Photo by Michael Clubb | Staff
February 12, 2023
Kentucky womens tennis suffered its first road loss of the season on Saturday, being defeated 4-1 by the Penn State Nittany Lions.
The team got off to a slow start as the team of junior Makayla Mills and senior Florencia Urrutia were defeated 6-0 on the doubles courts.
This form would change as the Wildcats took the next two battles with the teams of freshman Zoe Hammond and sophomore Ellie Eades winning 6-2 and senior Maialen Morante and junior Elziabeth Stevens winning 7-6 after a game-deciding 7-4 tie breaker to secure the point for the first and only point for the Wildcats.
Kentucky’s fortunes would then change for the worse as the singles matches didn’t go the Wildcats’ way.
Both Urrutia and sophomore Lidia Gonzalez battled into their third sets but were ultimately defeated by the Nittany Lions. Urrutia’s match finished with scores of 6-2, 7-5 and 6-4. Gonzalez’s match resulted in a score of 7-6, following a 7-4 tiebreaker, 6-2 and 7-5.
Hammond and Stevens were also defeated in straight sets by scores of 6-3 and 6-4 and 6-1 and 6-4 respectively.
Eades and Morante both also had matches in progress, but both were thrown out after Penn State scored the four points needed to secure the win.
With the loss, the Wildcats will take their 4-3 record into West Lafayette, Indiana, as they face off against the Purdue Boilermakers at the Schwartz Tennis Center on Friday, Feb. 17, at 3 p.m. EST.
