What’s important was that the Kansas University tennis team came up one point short of snapping a four-dual losing streak as it looks for momentum as the Big 12 Conference tournament approaches.

After losing all three doubles matches against Kansas State, the Jayhawks fought for each point and for each ball during the singles competition. But the home team’s slow start Wednesday afternoon at the Robinson courts gave KU coach Amy Hall-Holt all the material she needed for a postmatch huddle with her club after the Wildcats won, 4-3.

“We finally realized how important the doubles point is,” said Hall-Holt, whose team hasn’t won an opening doubles point since its 4-3 victory against Oklahoma State on March 19. “We don’t know how much more we can prove to them to come out and be competitive in doubles, to let them know how important that one single doubles point is because it could have been the biggest difference in our match today.”

The Jayhawks apparently took notes.

“They just really stressed how we need to come out faster and come out stronger and take some of the pressure off the singles matches,” KU freshman Stephanie Smith said of the coaching staff.

Kansas State (8-7, 3-4) looked to hand its intrastate rival another blowout loss after it took four of the six opening games in singles, but to its credit, Kansas (4-14, 3-6) shook off its slumber in the second round.

“Definitely, today I think we improved with keeping the ball in play,” Hall-Holt said. “Now we got to make better decisions on the placement of the ball.”

One Kansas player remained on cruise control for the duration of her match. KU freshman Lauren Hommell quickly won her match as the No. 4 seed against K-State’s Tereza Prochazkova, 6-2, 6-1, for her team’s first victory.

“It was under an hour,” Hommell said of her performance. “It feels really good to be the first one off. I’m usually one of the last ones.”

Added Hall-Holt: “If she can continue to play that kind of ball, she’ll win out the rest of her matches.”

At No. 6 singles, Smith, tagged as “a grinder” by her coach, did just that versus Fernanda De Valle, picking up her team-high 13th singles victory. After losing the first set, 6-2, Smith rallied to win the next two, 6-2, 6-3.

KU’s Ashley Filberth came up with her team’s final victory at the No. 5 seed, defeating Judith Diaz, 6-2, 7-5.

Kansas could have won all the singles matches. At one point, Christine Skoda and Brittany Brown were tied 5-5 in the second set, and Elizaveta Avdeeva was at a 4-4 standstill with K-State’s Maria Rosenberg in the matchup of No. 1 players.

6Sports video: Wildcats’ tennis total creeping up at KU

“We’re just short on the mental game right now,” Hall-Holt said. “Right now we need to get a positive vibe from all the players from 1 to 8. It’s a mental game. If you look at tennis, it’s 70-percent mental, 30-percent talent.

“We stepped it up a level but still we got to continue to raise the bar.”

Kansas will close out its regular season with two home matches, against Colorado at 11 a.m. Saturday and against Texas A&M on April 23.