Tulane Women's Tennis Falls Short Against Kentucky in the NCAA Round of 16

Julie Smekodub

The No. 16 Tulane women's tennis team, playing in its second consecutive NCAA Round of 16, fell to Kentucky, 4-1, ending the Wave's 17-match winning streak on Thursday afternoon at the Magill Tennis Center in Athens, Ga.

"There were a lot of close matches, even when we were down by three we were still hanging in there. It was a lot closer than the 4-1 score indicates," Tulane coach David Schumacher said. "Everyone battled, even though some of them were physically hurting. The girls gave it their best and you can't ask for any more than that."

For just the fifth time this season, the Green Wave dropped the doubles point as the Wildcats claimed two of the three doubles contests. Sarah Foster and Aibika Kalsarieva, the nation's seventh-ranked doubles team, recorded an 8-2 victory over Maria and Darya Ivanov at No. 1.

An 8-3 upset win by No. 42 Julie Smekodub and Jenny Kuehn over Kentucky's Kim Coventry and Joelle Schwenk, ranked 22nd nationally, gave each team one win apiece. Kentucky took the early 1-0 lead in the match as Emily Foster and Lara Maurer held off seniors Nancy Kockott and Ana Saaibi, 8-4, on court three.

The Wildcats increased their advantage to 3-0 with the start of singles play as Schwenk and Maurer upended Darya Ivanov and Kockott on courts four and five, respectively. The Wave got on the board with a three-set win by Smekodub over No. 64 Sarah Foster at No. 3. After falling in the first set, 6-4, Smekodub did not lose any games in the second set and used a 6-3 third set to trim the UK lead to 3-1.





With the remaining three singles matches deep into third sets, Kentucky's Aibika Kalsarieva, ranked No. 3 in the nation, clinched the win by holding off Maria Ivanov (6-4, 2-6, 6-4) on court one. Kuehn and No. 30 Coventry were knotted at five-all in set three at the two spot while Saaibi trailed Danielle Petrisko 5-2 in the third set at No. 6.

"Maria was playing one of the top players in the country and had multiple game points in the first set. She had a lot of chances, but fell in a very good match to a worthy opponent," Schumacher said. "She had a close match, and three points made the difference."

Tulane ends the season with a record of 25-6, while Kentucky moves to 26-5 on the year and will face Texas in the national quarterfinals on Friday afternoon.

"Had we won today I think we could have really had a chance against Texas and a lot of the other teams that are here," Schumacher added. "The 11, 12 and 13 seeds all won today. With us at 14 playing at the third seed, I thought we had a chance too, but it didn't work out like that."

No. 3 Kentucky 4 vs. No. 16 Tulane 1
5/19/05 - NCAA Championships Round of 16
Henry Feild -Magill Tennis Center - Athens, Ga.

Singles
1. #3 Aibika Kalsarieva (UK) def. Maria Ivanov (TU): 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
2. #47 Jenny Kuehn (TU ) vs. #30 Kim Coventry (UK): DNF
3. Julie Smekodub (TU) def. #64 Sarah Foster (UK): 4-6, 6-0, 6-3
4. Joelle Schwenk (UK) def. Darya Ivanov (TU): 6-3, 6-3
5. Lara Maurer (UK) def. No. 106 Nancy Kockott (TU): 7-5, 6-3
6. .Ana Maria Saaibi (TU) vs. Danielle Petrisko (UK): DNF


Order of Finish: 4, 5, 3, 1

Doubles
1. #7 S. Foster/Kalsarieva (UK) def. #31 M. Ivanov/D. Ivanov (TU): 8-2
2. # 42 Smekodub/Kuehn (TU) def. #22 Coventry/Schwenk (UK): 8-3
3. E. Foster/Maurer (UK) def. Kockott/Saaibi (TU): 8-4


Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3