Huskers Fall 4-1 to No. 11 Jayhawks

Lawrence, Kan., -- The Nebraska women’s tennis team fell to #11 Kansas, 4-1 in a non-conference matchup at the Jayhawk Tennis Center on Wednesday evening. The highlight of the night for NU was Vasanti Shinde’s 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 2 singles over #50 Janet Koch of Kansas.

 

The match began with doubles competition, where the Huskers dropped matches at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots as Kansas earned the doubles point.

 

Senior Vasanti Shinde and Marina Cozac competed together at the No. 1 doubles spot against KU’s Janet Koch and Nina Khmelnitckaia, who are ranked as the No. 3 doubles pair in the country by ITA’s Women’s Tennis rankings. Shinde and Cozac ended up losing the match 6-3.

 

At the No. 2 position, Jessica Aragon and Claire Reifeis competed together for the Huskers. They also dropped their match, 6-3. Hayley Haakenstad and Jeannie Lozowski were down 5-4 in the No. 3 doubles match, but did not finish it out.

 

As the match moved to singles, several Huskers provided valiant efforts against top competition.

 

At the No. 1 spot, Claire Reifeis took on #53 Anastasia Ryachagova. Reifeis battled hard throughout the match, taking the first set to tiebreaker before losing 6-7 (0-3). Reifeis dropped the second set as well, as Rhachagova came away with the 7-6 (3-0), 6-2 victory. The loss is the first singles loss of the year for Reifeis, who came into the match at 6-0.

 

Vasanti Shinde took on #50 Janet Koch at the No. 2 spot. Vasanti won the first set, 6-4, and finished out the top 50 singles player by taking the second set 6-2. The win was Shinde’s first singles victory over a top 50 player in her career at Nebraska.

 

Marina Cozac dropped her first match of the season (she was 2-0) in a 4-6, 1-6 loss to Ploburng Plipuech at the No. 3 spot in the lineup. 

 

Jeannie Lozowski’s match with Nina Khmelnitckaia at No. 4 went unfinished. Lozowski dropped the first set 3-6 but took the second set 7-5 to get back in it. She was down 2-0 in the third set when the match concluded.

 

Jessica Aragon fell 6-0 in the first set before storming back to win the second set, 6-4, at the No. 5 singles position. She was down 2-5 in the final set when the match was ended early.

 

At the No. 6 singles position, junior Hayley Haakenstad fell 6-0, 6-3 to Kansas’ Sonia Smagina.

 

With the loss, Nebraska drops to 3-5 (0-0 Big Ten) on the season and Kansas improves to 4-1 (0-0 Big 12).

 

The Huskers return to action on Saturday for a doubleheader at the Dillon Tennis Center against Wyoming at 10 a.m. and Drake at 5 p.m.

 

Results vs. Kansas:

 

Singles

1. #53 Anastasia Ryachagova (KU) def. Claire Reifeis (NEB), 7-6 (3-0), 6-2

2. Vasanti Shinde (NEB) def. #50 Janet Koch (KU), 6-4, 6-3

3. Ploburng Plipuech (KU) def. Marina Cozac (NEB), 6-4, 6-1

4. Nina Khmelnitckaia (KU) vs. Jeannie Lozowski (NEB), 6-3, 5-7, 2-0, unfinished

5. Maria Toran Ribas (KU) def. Jessica Aragon (NEB), 6-0, 4-6, 5-2, unfinished

6. Sonia Smagina (KU) def. Hayley Haakenstad (NEB), 6-0, 6-3

 

Doubles:

1. #3 Janet Koch/Nina Khmelnitckaia (KU) def. Vasanti Shinde/Marina Cozac (NEB), 6-3

2. #57 Anastasia Rychagova/Sonia Smagina (KU) def. Jessica Aragon/Claire Reifeis (NEB), 6-3

3. Hayley Haakenstad/Jeannie Lozowski (NEB) vs. #41 Maria Toran Ribas/Malkia Ngonoue (KU), 4-5, unfinished

 

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (6,3,2,1)