The Wildcats traveled to Texas for two matches against ranked opponents last weekend, facing off against the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the TCU Horned Frogs. The trip ended in two defeats for K-State.
On Friday against Texas Tech, the Wildcats never got anything going and were swept 4-0 by the No. 13 Red Raiders.
“We created the right situations in singles but did not always execute well or make the right choices in the big points,” K-State head coach Danielle Steinberg said to K-State Sports. “After a few times of doing that, the opponent will get confident and all of a sudden the match has a completely different rhythm to it. We are getting the points set up like we want it, though, which is encouraging, and I think making better choices is something that will develop with time and practice.”
K-State began the day by losing the doubles point 2-0, with the third doubles match not being finished because the point was already clinched.
In singles play, only three matches were played. No. 1 singles player for the Wildcats, freshman Ana Garcia Navas, lost in straight sets 6-3 and 6-2. The No. 2 singles, sophomore Carolina Costamagna, did not have a better result as she lost 6-2 and 6-1. Freshman Millie Stretton was the final match of the day and she also lost by scores of 6-2 in both sets.
Sunday’s match against TCU got off to a better start. K-State began the day by winning the doubles point over the No. 35 Horned Frogs. Stretton and Garcia Navas won in the No. 1 doubles pair with a score of 7-6. Juniors Palma Juhasz and Livia Cirnu clinched the doubles point for the Wildcats with a 6-3 victory.
For singles play, the Wildcats competed much better against TCU than they did against Texas Tech, but they still lost four straight matches and fell 4-1 overall.
In the No. 1 singles, Garcia Navas did not get to finish her match because the four match losses had occurred before her match ended.
She did win the first set, though, and was up in the second set. Costamagna also did not get to finish her match for the same reason. Stretton fell in a three-set match — after losing the first set 6-2, she came back and won the second set 6-4 before falling in the final set 6-3.
Junior Iva Bago also fell in three sets. She lost the first set 6-4, won the second 6-3 and then lost the third 6-1. Cirnu had a three-set match with scores of 6-3, 1-6 and 4-6. Junior Maria Panaite lost the last match in straight sets 6-1 and 6-2.
With the two losses, the Wildcats remain winless in conference play.
The RacketCats will be in action again this weekend when they take a road trip to Ames, Iowa, on Friday to take on Iowa State before heading to Morgantown, West Virginia, to take on the Mountaineers on Sunday.
