The Kansas State tennis team will travel to Kansas City, Missouri, on Thursday to take on the University of Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos in their first match of the spring season.
The UMKC Kangaroos only took part in two tournaments during the fall season, participating in the Emporia State University Chicken Dinner Tournament in September and the ITA Central Regional Championship in Lawrence in October.
The Kangaroos posted a 13-3 singles record and 6-2 doubles record in Emporia.
UMKC players Katie Fries and Ioanna Lathouri led the way in singles, both posting three wins, while the pair Aliona Ladutska and Grace Ball put up three wins in the doubles category.
In Lawrence, Fries and Ladutska both got two wins before being eliminated, while the pair of Ladutska and Ball lost in the second round to K-State’s very own freshmen, Anna Turco and Margot Decker.
With the Kangaroos only participating in two tournaments in the fall, they won’t have the same experience that the Wildcats have been able to accrue, competing in seven.
K-State had a strong fall season, one of the most successful fall seasons in the program’s recent years.
During the fall season, the Wildcats won five individual tournament titles, posted a 44-27 singles record and 41-18 doubles record. The four freshmen had a combined 25-11 singles record and 25-7 doubles record this past fall.
On Jan. 9, head coach Danielle Steinberg announced that Jordan Smith would be promoted to associate head coach. Smith was a recruiter for K-State before this promotion.
“Jordan deserves every bit of this promotion, and we are thrilled for him,” Steinberg said to K-State Sports. “Throughout the past two and a half years, he has been instrumental in building the culture of this program, making it better, step by step.”
Smith is in his third year with the Wildcats, serving as an assistant with the Middle Tennessee men’s team. Smith spent his playing career at the University of Memphis where he reached a No. 47 ranking in doubles during the 2010 season.
