The Kansas tennis team lost 4-0 to South Carolina on Friday afternoon in an NCAA Tournament matchup at the Chewning Tennis Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The Jayhawks finish the year at 14-12 overall, having returned to the tournament for the seventh time under head coach Todd Chapman, following a one-year absence from the competition, but failing to advance past the first round.
The Gamecocks completed their sweep by first claiming the doubles point, then winning at Nos. 1, 2 and 6 in singles, with national No. 47 Kaitlyn Carnicella clinching the victory at No. 2 by beating KU’s Maria Titova 6-3, 6-4.
Elsewhere in singles, South Carolina’s top performer and national No. 15 Sarah Hamner defeated KU’s Gracie Mulville, a South Carolina transfer, 6-4, 6-2, in the first singles match to go final, and then at No. 6, Helena Buchwald beat Anna Putilina, 6-3, 6-4.
KU had started strong with early leads at Nos. 1 and 3 on the doubles side, but the national top-10 pairing of Hamner and Carnicella surged ahead to defeat No. 31 Mulville and Heike Janse Van Vuuren, 6-4.
Putilina and Kyoka Kubo were not able to finish their match against Buchwald and Lauren Friedman, which was tied 5-5, because Olympe Lancelot and Bella Bergqvist Larsson promptly beat KU’s Jasmine Adams and Yerkezhan Arystanbekova 6-4 as well at No. 2 to take the doubles point.
The Jayhawks were ahead in the other three singles matches at the time that South Carolina clinched the result. According to a KU press release, Kubo led Lancelot at No. 3 by a score of 6-3, 5-5, Van Vuuren was ahead of Misa Malkin 6-2, 6-7, 1-0 at No. 4 and Adams led Larsson 7-6(4), 3-3 at No. 5 when KU’s season came to an end.
