KU tennis advances in NCAA Tournament, but leaves coach wanting more
Kansas women’s tennis has moved past the first round of the NCAA Tournament ... which was about the best thing coach Todd Chapman could say about his team following Friday’s victory at Jayhawk Tennis Center.
KU, the overall No. 14 seed, defeated Denver 4-0, setting up a second round matchup with Florida at 1 p.m. Saturday.
“To be honest with you, I wasn’t 100 percent pleased with us today,” Chapman said. “It’s nice to get a win and advance, but I think we’ve got to clean a lot of things up to be ready for a tough team (Saturday). We were sloppy in some situations, and really mentally in a few spots ... really sloppy.”
The final score wasn’t as uneven as it appeared. KU took the doubles point before picking up singles wins at No. 6 (Maria Toran Ribes 6-0, 6-0), No. 3 (Plobrung Plipuech 6-2, 6-0) and No. 5 (Nina Khmelnitckaia 6-3, 5-4) to end the competition. Still, KU struggled some in singles once moving from the outdoor courts to the indoor ones following a rain delay, with the team’s three uncompleted matches in doubt.
“I didn’t feel like we used the crowd very well today on some courts where we weren’t emotionally engaged enough,” Chapman said. “The positive is, all those things are fixable, and all those things we have done in the past.”
Florida — ranked 24th in the latest ITA poll — defeated Boston College 4-1 on Friday morning. The Gators, 13-11 this season, have seven national championships in their program history, with the most recent coming in 2017.
KU, meanwhile, will have home court Saturday as host of the first two rounds.
“It’s an unbelievable crowd. They always support us,” Khmelnitckaia said. “It’s definitely gotten better since the last couple weeks, so we’re really excited to play at home.”
