Edina Horvath stood motionless on the baseline with her back to the court and her hands on her hips after another shot had sailed long in her doubles match.
“I was really sad because I tried everything,” she said. “I tried to keep the ball; I tried to play aggressive, but today, I just felt like nothing worked.”
Horvath finally had it. The injuries, the losses and near misses had finally taken their toll.
Horvath had not practiced for two days because of tightness in her back and a quadriceps.
Kansas has only three players who aren’t fighting nagging injuries, and KU has dropped six straight matches, including Sunday’s loss to Colorado, 5-2.
“It’s mentally draining right now and mentally frustrating with the injuries,” KU coach Amy Hall-Holt said.
After her moment of reflection on the baseline, Horvath appeared bound and determined to get out of her funk. She responded in the next game by slamming balls at the net and crushing passing shots.
Colorado didn’t score a point, and she and teammate Elizaveta Avdeeva won their first game of the match.
But they wouldn’t win another game after that and eventually lost, 8-1.
After starting the conference season 5-0, Horvath and Avdeeva now have lost three of their last four matches.
Horvath was not going to let the same thing happen in her No. 2 singles match.
“I really wanted to win because I was sad because of the doubles,” she said.
She took her anguish out on CU’s Camila Belassi, winning 6-3, 6-3. She controlled the match from the start and seemed to dictate each point.
“The girl who I played against, she played that game exactly the way I like,” Horvath said. “She kept the ball, and I just had to play aggressive.”
Horvath, a junior, played for the second straight match at No. 2 singles after having never played above the No. 3 singles slot in her career before last week.
The victory was her first in No. 2 singles, and she improved her record to 11-8.
The Jayhawks’ only other winner Sunday was Yuliana Svistun in No. 5 singles. Svistun defeated Gleisy Torres Torres, 6-2, 6-2. Svistun has won 12 of her last 14 matches and improved her league record to 7-2.
With the loss, Kansas dropped to 4-13 overall and 2-7 in the Big 12 Conference. The Jayhawks have only two conference matches remaining on their schedule – Wednesday at Oklahoma and Sunday back in Lawrence against Texas A&M.
Kansas will finish its season with the Big 12 Championships on April 26-29 in Kansas City, Mo.