UH tennis drops to 2-18 marking a disastrous inaugural Big 12 season. | Oscar Herrera/ The Cougar
UH tennis was defeated in road contests against No.54 Kansas and Iowa State. The team suffered a 4-0 loss in Friday’s matchup and a 5-2 loss to Iowa State on Sunday.
Match 1
To begin doubles play, senior Laura Slisane and junior Maria Dzemeshkevich lost 6-3 to Maria Titova and Gracie Mulville in doubles on court one.
Heike Janse Van Vuuren and Jasmine Adams defeated sophomores Sophie Schouten and Gabriela Cortes, 6-4 to secure Kansas’s doubles point.
In singles play Kyoka Kubo defeated junior Elena Trencheva 6-1, 6-1, doubling the Jayhawks lead. Dzemeshkevich held off three set chances after trailing 5-0 in the second set after being shut out in the first but ultimately lost 6-0, 6-3 to Mulville. On court two, Kansas won the match after Slisane lost to Titova 6-2, 6-2.
On their separate courts, senior Blanca Cortijo Parreno and Schouten each took a 2-1 lead in the opening set before losing 7-5. Cortes defeated Maria Silvia Costache 6-4 in her opening set.
Match 2
In doubles play, The Cyclones forfeited their third doubles pair giving Houston an early lead.
On the first court, Ashlee Narker and Anna Kuearum defeated Cortes and Schouten, 6-2. Iowa State secured the doubles point when Valeska San Martin Ramirez and Juliette Nask defeated Slisane and Dzemeshkevichin a 6-3 contest.
In singles play, after junior Sonya Kovalenko won in a forfeit on court six to equalize the match, Iowa State took the lead on court one as Kuearum defeated Dzemeshkevich, 6-1, 6-2. Slisane lost against Narker, 6-3, 6-1, on court two, bringing the Cyclones one victory away from winning the match. Schouten lost the first set 6-2, then rallied to win the second, 6-1, before losing the last set, 6-2.
Houston wouldn’t back down as Cortes recovered to win the final two sets against San Martin, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, as Houston secured its second point. Gala Arangis’s 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 victory over Trencheva gave Iowa State the last point of the afternoon.
The team sits at 2-18 on the season. Next, UH will participate in the Big 12 Tennis Championship where they will take on No.3 seed in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
