Kansas freshman Heike Janse Van Vuuren was the lone winner for the 28th-ranked Jayhawks in Friday’s 4-1 loss to No. 11 Iowa State at the Big 12 women’s tennis championships at the Jayhawk Tennis Center at Rock Chalk Park.
Seeded sixth at the 10-team event, Kansas dropped three of four singles matches and both of its doubles matches to lose the doubles point to the third-seeded Cyclones.
Van Vuuren won her match over ISU’s Anna Supapitch Kuearum in straight sets, 6-4 and 6-3.
KU senior Malkia Ngounoue was the Jayhawk who came closest to notching the Jayhawks’ second win, falling to Iowa State’s Thasaporn Naklo, 7-5 and 6-4 in a tough match between players ranked 69th and 67th nationally.
Iowa State’s Miska Kadleckova defeated KU’s Maria Titova 6-3 and 6-3 in the second-fastest match of the day and ISU’s Sofia Cabezas defeated KU sophomore Mariana Manyoma-Velasquez, 6-0 and 6-3.
Van Vuuren and Ngounoue teamed up as KU’s top doubles team and took the Cyclones to the wire, falling 6-4 in No. 1 doubles action.
KU’s Jocelyn Massey and Carmen Roxana Manu also lost 6-4 in doubles action, falling to the 64th-ranked duo from Iowa State of Ange Oby Kajuru and Xinyi Nong.
Three of the quarterfinal matches between ISU and KU went unfinished when the Cyclones recorded the necessary points to secure the victory and advance to Saturday’s semifinals.
Titova and Tamari Gagoshidze were tied at 4-4 with the Cyclones in No. 3 doubles action when the match went final and Gagoshidze led 5-3 in the second set of her singles match after falling 6-3 in the opener.
In the other unfinished match, Roxana Manu had pushed her opponent to a third set by winning the second set in a tiebreaker — 7-6 (7-3) — after falling 6-3 in the opening set.
The win moved the Cyclones to 18-4 overall while Kansas fell to 14-7. ISU will face second-seeded Oklahoma in Saturday’s semifinals.
