Huskers Finish Regular Season Schedule

Match Information
Nebraska (15-5, 4-5) at Kansas (7-12, 3-6)
Date: Friday, April 18, 2008
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: Lawrence, Kan.
Rankings: Nebraska (67); Kansas (NR)
Nebraska All-Time vs. Kansas: 11-21
Last Match: Kansas 5, Nebraska 2 (March 10, 2007)

Nebraska (15-5, 4-5) vs. Kansas State (6-12, 2-7)
Date: Sunday, April 20, 2008
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: Lincoln, Neb. (Nebraska Tennis Center)
Rankings: Nebraska (67); Kansas State (NR)
Nebraska All-Time vs. Kansas State: 28-9
Last Match: Nebraska 5, Kansas State 2 (April 15, 2007)

Huskers Finish Regular Season Schedule
The Nebraska women’s tennis finishes its regular season schedule this week with two Big 12 matches. The Huskers travel to Lawrence, Kan., on Friday to take on the Jayhawks before returning home for their last home match of the season on Sunday against Kansas State. Nebraska is currently 4-5 in Big 12 play this season and 15-5 overall, and have a chance to get to at least 17 wins for the third time in the last four seasons.

Nebraska has already guaranteed itself a winning season, marking the 12th consecutive season above .500 for head coach Scott Jacobson and the Huskers. With two wins this weekend and a strong showing at the Big 12 Championships in two weeks, the Huskers have a chance to close in on the school-record for victories in a season, which is currently 19, achieved twice in both 2000 and 2001.

Nebraska split a pair of matches for the second straight weekend, this time both matches were played in Lincoln. Last Friday, the Huskers recovered from losing the doubles point to post an emphatic 5-2 victory over Missouri. On Sunday against Colorado, the Huskers again lost the doubles point, and this time nearly pulled off another impressive victory, however they dropped the final three singles matches after taking a 3-1 lead and lost 4-3.

Scouting the Jayhawks
The Jayhawks, losers of their last four matches and seven of their last nine overall, have been victims of a tough schedule. Kansas has four losses on the year by a score of 4-3, and have been competitive in nearly all of their other eight losses. Kansas has done much better at home this season, posting a 5-4 home record while going 2-8 in matches away from Lawrence. Junior Edina Horvath leads the team with 10 dual victories in singles play this spring.

Scouting the Wildcats
After winning their first four matches of the spring season, the Kansas State Wildcats have struggled ever since, losing 12 of their next 14 matches heading into this weekend’s match with Nebraska. The Wildcats won two of their first four Big 12 matches, but have since lost five in a row in their current five-match losing streak. Senior Viviana Yrureta leads the team with nine singles victories, all at the No. 1 position.

Strong Singles Play Propels Huskers to Victory
The Nebraska women’s tennis team recovered from a slow start to defeat the Missouri Tigers 5-2 last Friday morning at the Nebraska Tennis Center. The win evened NU’s record to 4-4 in the Big 12 and 15-4 overall, while Missouri dropped to 9-11 and 1-7 in the Big 12.

The Huskers dug themselves in a hole early, as they weren’t able to find a rhythm in doubles play, and dropped two of the three matches. At No. 1 doubles, Jana Albers and Imke Reimers improved to 6-2 in the Big 12 with an 8-4 win, but the Huskers lost 8-2 at No. 2 and 8-3 at No. 3, giving Missouri a 1-0 lead going into singles play.

“We had good energy out there in doubles,” said Head Coach Scott Jacobson. “But sometimes you just don’t strike it as clean as you’d like, and today was one of those days. You’ve got to give Missouri credit too, because they really played great doubles.”

Nebraska turned it up in singles play, quickly taking a 2-1 lead after Stephanie Evans and Amber Chandronnait won at No. 4 and No. 5 singles, respectively. Missouri tied it at 2-2 with Sofia Ayala’s win over Maria Ring at No. 6 singles, but that would be the last point the Huskers would concede on the day. Reimers made it 3-2 Nebraska with a three-set victory at No. 1 singles, and Albers clinched the match for NU with a victory at No. 3 singles. Wiveca Swarting closed the scoring with a straight-set victory at No. 2 singles.

Jacobson said he was very impressed with the team’s effort in singles after the slow start in doubles.

“(Our singles play) was the most impressive thing about the day, since this was probably the least successful doubles day we’ve had this season,” said Jacobson. “With the way we bounced back and came out and battled in singles really impressed Coach (Hayden) Perez and I.”

Buffaloes Outlast Huskers
The Nebraska women’s tennis team fell to the Colorado Buffaloes 4-3 last Sunday at the Nebraska Tennis Center in a match that wasn’t decided until nearly four hours after it began. The Huskers missed their chance for a third straight conference win and drop to 15-5 overall and 4-5 in Big 12 play, while Colorado wins its second straight and improves to 9-10 and 6-3 in the Big 12.

The Huskers got off to a rough start once again, losing the doubles point for the fifth time in their last six matches. Jana Albers and Imke Reimers won their 15th match of the season at No. 1 doubles with a 9-8 (5) victory over CU’s Monica Milewski and Camila Belassi, but it wasn’t enough as the Buffaloes took both No. 2 and No. 3 to take the point.

The Huskers rallied in singles play and took home the first three completed singles matches to give the team a 3-1 lead. Reimers (No. 1), Wiveca Swarting (No. 2) and Albers (No. 3) each won in straight sets, and put the Huskers on the brink of victory, needing only one win in the remaining three matches to secure the team victory.

The Buffaloes mounted a furious comeback, however, first winning at No. 6 singles to make it 3-2 Nebraska, then battling back from losing the first set in both No. 4 and No. 5 singles to force a third set, where both Veera Nurmi at No. 4 and Melisa Esposito at No. 5 won by a score of 6-1. The Huskers ran out of gas in their longest match of the season, and despite a great effort, fell short.

Net Notes
>> The Huskers have guaranteed themselves their 12th straight winning season, a streak that goes all the way back to the first year of the Big 12’s formation.
>> None of Nebraska’s first 16 matches of the season season came down to the wire. In fact, one team in each match scored exactly zero or one point. In the first 16 matches, NU had nine 7-0, one 4-0 and three 6-1 victories, and two 7-0 and one 6-1 loss.
>> Nebraska set a school record after it recorded its sixth and seventh consecutive sweeps on Feb. 15 and 16. The seven straight shutouts are the best in team history, one better than the six consecutive the team recorded from Feb. 20-March 5, 2000.
>> Six Husker players (Jana Albers, Amber Chandronnait, Marianne Cicmanec, Stephanie Evans, Imke Reimers and Wiveca Swarting) have combined for 10 sweeps of their opponents so far this season (Reimers and Swarting have three, Albers, Chandronnait, Cicmanec and Evans have one). Last season, Nebraska only had one 6-0, 6-0 victory for the entire season.
>> Nebraska has won 87 of its last 90 non-conference home matches, dating back to the 1998 season. The Huskers’ current streak is at 15.