In the first home match of the year, the Washington Huskies snap a four-match win streak for the Kansas State tennis team. Washington moves to (8-2), while the Wildcats drop to (5-3) after getting dominated 4-1.
From the beginning of the game, the Huskies jumped out to an early 2-0 singles match lead and stole the first doubles match to go up 3-0. K-State recouped and won the next two singles matches bringing the score to 2-2, while also winning the second doubles match to even the score at one a piece.
“I thought they came in and just played better in the bigger points than us,” said K-State head coach Jordan Smith said to K-State Sports. “I kind of knew that. They are probably a little bit more battle tested more recently than we have been and that probably came down to it. I definitely think it’s a missed opportunity because I don’t think we played as well as we could have. Definitely not as well as some our other matches when there is less on the line. Obviously, we know in those big moments we kind of need to bring it a little more because we run out of opportunities.”
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Despite not having much positivity in the loss to Washington, K-State junior Margot Decker secured her sixth-consecutive win. Decker lost her first first set in the first match but came back guns blazing to secure the win.
“They were a good team and we were expecting a tough match,” Decker said. “Individually, I feel like in my first set I was not focused. In my second set, I was thinking about looking at the ball and it came back, and I just did the work.”
K-State junior singles players Maria Linares and Anna Turco tried their best to stay with highly-touted Washington Huskies. Both Linares and Turco were tamed in two sets a piece.
Likewise, junior Lilla Barzo and senior Ines Mesquita lost in doubles 6-2.
Unfortunately, losing was the result of most of the matches Friday afternoon in Manhattan.
The K-State women kept it somewhat close early in the day, but got swept away as the afternoon progressed falling to 5-3 while Washington moves on to 8-2.
