On Saturday, KSU’s women’s tennis team picked up their sixth consecutive win and possibly their most impressive victory in program history, coming back to win, 4-3, over tennis power house East Tennessee State.
The Lady Owls were off to a strong start with the doubles point in hand after winning two
out of three matches. However the doubles point was not enough when the two schools faced off in 2011; ETSU would only drop one match in singles and ultimately discard the Owls, 5-2. That recent fate may have weighed heavily on the mindsets of Owls tennis veterans Vera Shkundina and Therese Lagerkvist, who both lost their singles matches as KSU fell behind 3-1.
Sophomore Alexandria Apostu also played in last year’s loss to ETSU, but this year Apostu would be the first to step-up and win a singles match at No.2, giving the Owls a chance, down 3-2.
It would be Apostu’s doubles partner, freshman Virginie Stein of Germany, who won next to tie KSU and ETSU at 3-3. Apostu and Stein had clinched the doubles point for their team when the freshman-sophomore duo improved their Atlantic Sun record at No.1 doubles to 7-0.
Now the pair had dug their team out of a 3-1 hole and Stein’s country woman and fellow freshman Jana Hueckinghaus would topple ETSU senior and 2011 Atlantic Sun All-Conference performer Karina Kedzo for the 4-3 win. After splitting two tie-break sets, with Hueckinghaus winning the first, it was freshman Hueckinghaus who toughed it out in the third set and stunned Kedzo, 6-0.
“Going down in the team match 1-3 put us in a difficult situation today,” said Owls head coach Jeff Kutac. “This was a great team effort and a great team win.”
KSU will next take on the No.1 team in the Atlantic Sun Conference when North Florida travels to the home of the Owls at Fair Oaks Tennis Center to play this Friday at noon. The match against North Florida could be an opportunity to make a statement after the Owls took down the A-Sun’s second place team in ETSU.
The Atlantic Sun Championships start April 20th in Johnson City, TN. Senior Vera Shkundina will play in her final home match on senior day this Saturday against Jacksonville at 2 p.m.
