The Kansas State tennis team traveled to Ames, Iowa, on Sunday and swept Iowa State. K-State has four more regular season series to go before the Big 12 Championship on April 26.
“Overall it was a good weekend, picking up two Big 12 wins on a tough road trip,” head coach Danielle Steinberg said to K-State Sports. “We did have a long break before this weekend, so we were a little worried about our match-play shape, but the team was focused and was able to pick up right where we left off.”
With their record of 14-5 overall (4-2 Big 12), K-State is ranked No. 35 nationally. This is the most single wins that the program has had since its 2010-11 season.
K-State earned their first doubles point of conference play with a 1-0 lead to start the day. The doubles duo of freshman Maria Linares and Anna Turco of K-State were able to beat Erin Freeman and Annabella Bonadonna 6-4. This was the first win of the spring season for Linares and Turco as a doubles pairing. They are now 2-1 on the season.
Freshman Rosanna Maffei and sophomore Ines Mesquita were able to come back from being down 4-3 to defeat Margarita Timakova and Ekaterina Repina 7-5 in the match. This paring of Maffei and Mesquita for K-State has now won consecutive matches and are 3-1 this season.
Freshman Margot Decker and senior Carolina Costamagna, who made up the No. 1 doubles team, won against Iowa State’s Maty Cancini and Regina Espindola.
“Doubles was a little better today, but still not where we want it to be,” Steinberg said to K-State Sports. “We will keep working in practice and hopefully improve each match we play.”
To add to the already impressive day, the Wildcats were able to claim three singles wins. The team is now 62-35 during its spring season in singles play; 42 of its wins have come in straight-set matches.
Turco claimed her fourth match in a row against Timakova in No. 5 singles, 6-2, 6-1.The freshman has now won eight of her first 11 matches.
Costamagna won her third consecutive match in No. 3 singles giving K-State a 3-0 lead. The senior has a winning record of 54-53 after defeating Erin Freeman of Iowa State, 6-1, 6-1.
Mesquita was able to win at No. 6 singles against Bonadonna of Iowa State. The sophomore for K-State has a record of 21-7 so far this season and is unbeaten in Big 12 play (3-0).
The next set of matches for K-State will be when they play against Wichita State on the road on 4 p.m. Friday and in the Sunflower Showdown against Kansas at 1 p.m. on April 15.
