Huskers Hit the Road to Take on Kansas

Match Information
Nebraska (6-4, 1-3) vs. Kansas Jayhawks (3-8, 1-1)

Date - Saturday, March 10, 2007

Time - 11 a.m.
Location - Lawrence, Kan.

Nebraska All-Time vs. Kansas - 11-20
Last Meeting - Nebraska, 4-3 (April 5, 2006)

 

►Huskers Hit the Road to Take on Kansas

The Nebraska women’s tennis team will hit the road this weekend, as they will travel to Lawrence, Kan., to take on the Kansas Jayhawks.

The meeting with the Jayhawks will mark the fourth Big 12 opponent for the Huskers this season, including their third straight on the road. The Huskers are currently 1-3 in Big 12 play, with the three losses coming to arguably the top three teams in the conference in Baylor, Texas and Texas A&M.

NU’s trip to Lawrence will be its third road match of the season. The Huskers played eight of their first 10 matches in the friendly confines of the Nebraska Tennis Center, where they currently own a 6-2 record. The Huskers will be looking to pick up their first road win of the season, where they are currently 0-2.

The trip was originally supposed to be the first of four straight road matches for the Huskers; however, Nebraska’s match against Northern Iowa, scheduled for March 3, was postponed due to inclement weather. The match will now be played on March 23, which comes right in the middle of the Huskers’ four-match road trip.

►Scouting the Jayhawks

Kansas head coach Amy Hall-Holt leads a young Jayhawk team that features no seniors on its seven-player roster. Junior Elizaveta Avdeeva has led the way for the Jayhawks this season, playing every singles match this season at the No. 1 spot and compiling a 4-7 record.

Kansas had a rough start to the season, but have rebounded to win two of their last three matches heading into Saturday’s match with the Huskers, including a Big 12 victory over Iowa State.

KU’s record may be a little misleading. Seven of Kansas’ eight losses have come to ranked teams. The Jayhawks could easily have three more wins than they already have?they have three one-point losses on the season, to No. 32 BYU, No. 47 Tulsa and Syracuse.

Kansas’ match with Nebraska will be its first home match since Feb. 17. The Jayhawks will play Louisville on March 11, the day after the Husker match. After playing the Cardinals, KU will have a 19-day break before playing again on March 30.

►Northern Iowa Match Rescheduled for March 23

The Nebraska women’s tennis team has announced that it has rescheduled a match with Northern Iowa for 9 a.m. on Friday, March 23, at the Nebraska Tennis Center. The match was originally scheduled for March 3, but was postponed due to inclement weather.

The men’s tennis team also has a home match at the Nebraska Tennis Center on March 23, at 2 p.m., forcing the women’s team to play at an earlier time than usual. The Panthers are currently 6-0 on the season.

►Huskers Drop Out of Rankings

After going 1-1 on the week, the Huskers dropped out of the latest ITA polls, which ranks the top 75 teams in the country. The Huskers lost to No. 25 Baylor over the weekend before sweeping unranked Saint Louis.

Other Big 12 teams in the rankings include No. 17 Texas A&M, No. 30 Colorado, No. 34 Texas, No. 43 Oklahoma State, No. 66 Oklahoma and No. 69 Texas Tech.

Wichita State, the first team to defeat the Huskers this year, jumped to No. 20 after a 10-0 start.

►Reimers No. 57 in Latest Rankings

Husker junior Imke Reimers is ranked No. 57 in the nation in singles play in the latest ITA polls. Reimers is 7-3 on the season, with all three of her losses coming to other nationally ranked opponents.

Reimers started the season ranked No. 30 and won her first six matches before dropping three straight to ranked Big 12 opponents. Reimers dropped out of the rankings in the last poll but regains her spot within the top 100 players in the nation in the latest poll.

►Strange Coincidences

The Huskers may only have to look at how two players did in their singles matches to determine the ultimate outcome of the match. Wiveca Swarting and Ashley Finnegan have identical 6-4 singles records on the season, which equals the team’s overall record. Each match that the Huskers have won, Swarting and Finnegan have also both won their singles matches, and each match the Huskers have lost, Swarting and Finnegan both lost their singles matches.

►Huskers Fall to No. 14 Baylor

Facing its third consecutive top-30 ranked Big 12 opponent, the No. 65 Nebraska women’s tennis team lost to No. 14 Baylor, 6-1, on March 2 at the Nebraska Tennis Center. The Huskers fell to 5-4 on the season, including 1-3 in Big 12 play, while the Bears improved to 6-4 and 1-0 in the Big 12.

The Huskers started the day strong and nearly took home the doubles point, but ultimately lost two of the three matches. At the No. 1 position, NU’s Imke Reimers and Diana Kuhl defeated Baylor’s Zuzana Cerna and Zuzana Chmelarova, 8-6, but the Bears won the other two matches and started off the day with a 1-0 lead.

The Nos. 1 and 2 singles positions saw especially close matches. Reimers lost to Cerna in the No. 1 position, 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (10-5), in a match that was back and forth the entire way. After losing the first set and falling behind early in the second, Reimers battled back to force a third-set tiebreaker, where she would fall just short.

At the No. 2 position, Kuhl earned the Huskers’ lone point on the day by defeating Baylor’s Jessica Zok in another back and forth match, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8).

Nebraska head coach Scott Jacobson was pleased with the way his team played on the day, especially coming off such a tough stretch last week playing on the road against two highly ranked teams.

"We just played three of the best teams in the country in (No. 19) Texas, (No. 23) Texas A&M and (No. 14) Baylor," Jacobson said. "Today, against the highest-ranked opponent, we played our best. Out of those three matches, today was definitely a big step in the right direction."

►Huskers Sweep Billikens

The No. 65 Nebraska women’s tennis team defeated the Saint Louis Billikens 7-0 at the Nebraska Tennis Center on March 4. The Huskers improved to 6-4 with the win, while Saint Louis dropped to 5-8.

The Huskers began the day by sweeping the doubles matches, highlighted by Imke Reimers and Diana Kuhl’s victory over SLU’s Katerina Lozonova and Tara Grant, 8-2, in the No. 1 position.

"I thought we came out with great energy in the doubles," NU head coach Scott Jacobson said. "We got off to a great start, and took some big leads right off the bat. We hadn’t gotten off to those quick starts in the few previous matches, so that was probably one of the highlights of the day."

The Huskers showed no sign of slowing in the singles matches. Kuhl (No. 2) and Ashley Finnegan (No. 6) both won their matches with scores of 6-0, 6-1, and Wiveca Swarting (No. 3) won her match 6-1, 6-2.

Nebraska was pushed to three sets in two of its matches against the Billikens, in the Nos. 4 and 5 spots. But the Huskers held on to win both matches, and coupled with Reimers 6-4, 6-4, win over Lozonova, the Huskers completed the sweep.

"Overall, it was a really good day for us," Jacobson said. "We had some situations where I thought our intensity level was really, really high."

Although this was supposed to be NU’s third match in three days, the March 3 match against Northern Iowa was postponed due to inclement weather. Jacobson said the postponement may have been a blessing in disguise for a Husker team that had suffered some bumps and bruises in recent weeks.

"In hindsight, it was probably a good thing for our team not to be competing three days in a row," Jacobson said. "Out of our six healthy players, probably four of them have some type of injury or aggravation. And obviously you need six players to make a team."

►Eight Huskers Named to Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll

The Nebraska women’s tennis team placed eight current and former team members on the 2006 Big 12 Commissioner’s Fall Honor Roll. Honor Roll status is awarded to student-athletes who achieve at least a 3.0 grade-point average during the semester.

Junior Imke Reimers earned a 4.0 GPA, making her one of 33 Husker student-athletes to post a perfect GPA. Reimers has been named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll in all five of her semesters at Nebraska. She was also a first-team academic All-Big 12 selection in 2006.

Pamela Castillejos, who earned her degree in December and finished her tennis career at Nebraska in 2006, was named to her third Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll, while Ewelina Skaza, also a senior from last year’s team, was named to her fourth. Skaza, along with Reimers, was a first-team academic All-Big 12 selection in 2006.

Five other current team members were honored along with Reimers. Freshmen Diana Kuhl and Wiveca Swarting, sophomores Ashley Finnegan and Maria Ring and junior Maria Popova were also named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll. Nebraska had a total of 270 honorees across 23 sports, including 33 who had a 4.0 GPA.

►Jacobson Earns 200th Career Victory

Nebraska head coach Scott Jacobson earned his 200th career victory on Friday, Jan. 26, as his team beat Wyoming 6-1.

"It’s just like any other win," Jacobson said. "I’m proud of our team and the way they persevered out there and came through in some pressure situations." Jacobson also celebrated his birthday on the same day.

After going 37-59 (.385) in his first five seasons as head coach, starting with the 1991-92 season, Jacobson has since gone 147-86 (.631), counting the 6-4 start to this season. He has led the Huskers to 10 straight winning seasons dating back to 1996-97. Before becoming head coach of the women’s team, Jacobson was an assistant on the NU men’s team from 1979 to 1989. Jacobson is the winningest and longest-serving women’s tennis coach in Husker history.

►Reimers Ranked No. 1 In Central Region

In addition to her national honors, Imke Reimers is ranked No. 1 in the Central Region in the latest ITA rankings, released Dec. 8, 2006. The teams around the nation are split into eight regions. Several Big 12 teams are counted in the Central Region, including Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Husker freshman Diana Kuhl is ranked No. 26 on the list as well.

►Net Notes

? After beating Colorado State, the Huskers improved to 4-1, marking the 10th straight season they have won at least four of their first five matches.

? Each of the Huskers’ four losses have come to teams that are currently ranked in the top 50. Although Wichita State was not ranked at the time they defeated the Huskers, they are currently 10-0 and have a No. 20 ranking in the latest ITA polls. The combined record of the teams that have defeated the Huskers is 30-9.

? Imke Reimers has won 25 of her last 31 singles matches, including the spring 2006 and fall 2006 seasons.

? Reimers has won 15 of 22 sets she has played in this season. She has only been outscored 39-24 in the seven sets she has lost, while she has outscored her opponents 85-31 in the 15 sets she has won.

? Reimers has won 39 (109 won, 70 lost) more games than her opponents on the season.

? The Huskers have only been pushed to three sets in 10 of their 60 singles matches this season.

? The 2006-07 Husker team lists no seniors, a first for the program since the 1998-99 season.

? Junior Imke Reimers is the squad’s only returning letterwinner.