The No. 52 Kansas State tennis team took on the No. 21 Baylor Bears on Friday, April 8, and while the Wildcats took many sets to the brink, they could not defeat the Bears, losing 4-1.
Baylor took its first point of the day in doubles, taking each match. The senior duo of Karine-Marion Job and Maria Linares faced off against the No. 3 doubles team in the country, Mel Krywoj and Alicia Herrero, falling 6-1.
The Wildcats finished the doubles matches with seniors Ioana Gheorghita and Anna Turco going up against Isabella Harvison and Alina Shcherbinina, losing 6-3 to end the doubles matches.
Heading into singles, Turco went up against the Bear’s Paula Baranano. The first set nearly went to tiebreaker, but Baranano took the set 7-5 over Turco. After battling in the first set, Turco lost the second set 6-3 as Baylor earned its second point.
The second match to end was between Linares and Harvison. The two battled as both sets came close, and Linares took each set from Harvison, winning 6-4, 6-4, earning the Wildcats their only point on the day.
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In another match going to two close sets, Gheorghita faced off against Shcherbinina. Shcherbinina won the first set off Gheorghita 6-4 but still had another set to take. In the second set, the two went into tiebreaker, where Shcherbinina won 7-3, putting Baylor one point away from the win on the day.
The final match on the day came between Wildcat senior Rosanna Maffei and Baylor’s Anita Sahdiieva. This match also started off close, as Sahdiieva beat Maffei in the first set, 7-5. Maffei fell in the second set 6-3, and Baylor took the 4-1 victory on the day.
Job and freshman Florentine Dekkers were each in their third set as their matches ended. Alicia Herrero had the slight lead on Job as she took the first set 6-2 but lost the second set 3-6 to Job and was up 2-1 in the final set. Dekkers lost her first set to Krywoj 6-3 and then took the second set 6-3, but was down 4-1 in the final set.
The Wildcats have a 9-10 record on the season heading into their final two matches against No. 4 Texas and No. 25 Kansas.
