Kentucky finally ran into a wall Sunday, but not before beating Clemson, North Carolina and Duke at the ITA Indoor Championships.
The Wildcats fell to Stanford 4-0 in the championship match Sunday after beating No. 8 Duke 4-3 in a tight semifinal a day earlier. The Wildcats also topped the third-ranked Tigers and 15th-ranked Tar Heels in Madison, Wis.
“We had a chance to go to the final with this team,” a disappointed head coach Jamie Ashworth said. “Kentucky is aggressive emotionally, and they just played better in certain spots.”
The team match came down to an individual battle between sophomore Jenny Zika and the Wildcats’ Kim Coventry. Coventry won the first set, 6-4, only to have Zika rebound and take the second set, 7-6. Zika, who saved seven match points in the second set before winning the tiebreaker, dropped the final set 6-4, allowing Kentucky to advance to Sunday’s final.
“Kentucky benefits from playing indoors,” Ashworth said. “We’re better outdoors than in, but we fought hard.”
With the Wildcats winning 3-2, senior Saras Arasu won a crucial comeback match against Daniella Petrinsko. Petrinsko took the first set 6-4 but 96th-ranked Arasu won the next two 6-3, 6-1 for the victory in the sixth flight.
No. 56 Jackie Carleton lost to seventh-ranked Aibika Kalsarieva 6-2, 6-0 in the first match to finish.
Freshman Clelia Deltour rolled to an easy 6-1, 6-2 win in the fourth slot, and Katie Blaszak took down 30th-ranked Sarah Foster 6-3, 6-0.
“Blaszak did a great job this tournament,” Ashworth said. “She upset two players ranked higher than her. She’s put in the time and it’s paying off.”
Duke failed to win the doubles point for the first time this year. With two top-15 doubles squads, the Wildcats won the first doubles match 8-4 and broke in the final game of second doubles match to score a 9-7 victory. Parker Goyer and Deltour won 8-3 for Duke’s lone doubles victory, and the tandem remains undefeated on the season.
“Our No. 3 doubles played well this entire tournament,” Ashworth said. “They gave us everything we asked of them, and they won fairly easily.”
To advance the semifinal, Duke beat 12th-ranked Miami Friday. The Blue Devils clinched the victory by winning the doubles point and the first three singles slots.
“The Miami match is the best we have played this year,” Ashworth said. “They’re a very emotional team like Kentucky, but we were able to match them both physically and emotionally and take their best players out of the match.”
Deltour and Goyer won the deciding doubles match to put Duke up 1-0 against the Hurricanes. Deltour then went on to post another victory, this time in the fourth singles slot. Blaszak won her match, putting the Blue Devils within one point of the overall win. Arasu then clinched the match winning two tight sets, 7-5, 6-4.
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