WICHITA, Kan. – The Wichita State women’s tennis team fell in a highly competitive match to the Kansas State Wildcats on Friday evening at the Wichita Country Club, 2-5. 
 
The Wildcats (2-0) claimed victory with a doubles point and victories at singles courts one, four, and five. The Shockers (2-2) now trail 28-31 in the all-time series with Kansas State.
 
The Wildcats took quick control of the match with victories at the top two doubles courts to take the early 1-0 match advantage.
 
“The doubles point is always crucial in a match like this,” Head Coach Colin Foster said. “We created some chances, but we lost a couple of close games here and there.”
 
All singles courts were incredibly competitive with multiple matches being decided in three sets and several sets ended in tiebreaks.
 
The Wildcats broke the stalemate with a three-set victory over Natusmi Kurahashi at court one. Kristina Kudryavtseva answered quickly with a three-set win at court three, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5.
 
Anne Knuettel fell in one of the tightest matches of the season for a Shocker, falling 6-7 (1), 7-6 (2), 4-6.
 
Xin Tong Wang pulled the match back within a point at 2-3 with a difficult, three-set win at court two in a match that lasted nearly three hours.
 
“I thought we responded and competed well in each of the three-set battles,” said Foster. “The match really came down to just a couple of points here and there.”
 
Kansas State’s Tereza Polakova would sweep Jessica Anzo 6-0, 6-2 at No. 5 singles to secure the win for the Wildcats.
 
“We’ll get better from a loss like this,” said Foster. “It’s a tough one to lose, but it’s two good teams going up against each other where both teams wanted the win, and we just came up a little short today.”
 
The Shockers will head back on the road next week for a road match against the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles in Tulsa on February 3 at 5:00 PM.