The Kansas State tennis team will play Nebraska and Akron at Body First Tennis Center in Manhattan on Friday starting at 10:30 a.m.
This season K-State is 5-1 overall and currently have a four-game winning streak.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers are 7-2 this season while the Akron Zips are 6-5 overall. After losing their first two matches, the Cornhuskers have won their last seven. Akron won its last match against East Tennessee State, 5-2.
K-State checked in at No. 35 in the Oracle/ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings on Tuesday. This is the highest ranking under head coach Danielle Steinberg in her fourth season. The last two match victories for K-State have been against former unbeaten teams, Washington State and Colorado.
Freshman Margot Decker is ranked at No. 104 in singles rankings. Decker is the first Wildcat ranked since Petra Niedermayerova in 2014.
On Feb. 18, the Wildcats traveled to Boulder, Colorado, to take on the then-undefeated Buffaloes. They finished with their fourth team victory in a row, defeating Colorado, 4-1 at the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center. K-State is now 15-25 against its former conference opponent.
“Playing at Colorado is always tough because of the altitude and the court conditions, so I am proud of the team for stepping up after doubles and playing tough even when it was uncomfortable,” Steinberg said to K-State Sports.
The duo of Decker and senior Carolina Costamagna gave their team its first doubles match win of the season over Colorado’s Louise Ronaldson and Jeannez Daniel, 6-3. They are now 4-1 this spring season playing together in doubles.
Colorado was able to claim the next two doubles matches. First, K-State’s No. 2 pair of freshman Maria Linares and sophomore Ines Mesquita, 2-6. Then, No. 3 freshmen Anna Turco and Rosanna Maffei could not hold on to beat Colorado’s Linda Huang and Kyra Wojcik.
“We came out flat in Nos. 2 and 3 doubles and we cannot afford to do that again,” said Steinberg to K-State Sports. “The doubles point is going to be crucial for us this year, so we simply need to do better than we did today. I am happy we were able to bounce back and get the energy back up before singles.”
Colorado, now 5-1, won its first five matches of the season for the third time in program history. The Buffaloes finished 2-1 against K-State in doubles.
For the doubleheader on Friday against Nebraska and Akron, live stats will be posted on kstatesports.com and results will be posted on the K-State Tennis Twitter page, @KStateTEN.
