Texas Tech Athletics
West Virginia
Lady Raiders face WVU, No. 12 Iowa State for final Big 12 matches
April 12, 2023 | Women's Tennis
LUBBOCK, Texas – After hosting five-consecutive home matches, the No. 35 Texas Tech Lady Raiders (13-8, 3-4 Big 12) are back on the road for the final time in the regular season as they take on West Virginia and No. 12 Iowa State this weekend.
Tech will be in Morgantown, W.Va., on Friday, April 14 for a 4 p.m. contest against the Mountaineers, then will head to Ames, Iowa for a match on Sunday, April 16 at 12 p.m. against the Cyclones.
Last week, the Lady Raiders dropped a tough match to the TCU Horned Frogs, 4-3. Tech started out by winning their 14th doubles point of the year with victories at courts one and three. Yekaterina Dmitrichenko and Camryn Stepp got things going when they beat Tiphanie Lemaitre and Destinee Martins, 6-4, at court three. Then, at the top of the lineup, Metka Komac and Avelina Sayfetdinova picked up a ranked win to clinch the point with a 6-3 win over No. 81 Helena Narmount and Yu-Chin Tsai.
In singles, TCU would take a 3-1 lead after getting wins at courts one, three and five. Sayfetdinova put another point on the board for Tech when she added her second ranked win of the day versus No. 105 Mercedes Aristegui at court two, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Dmitrichenko picked up Tech's third point when she defeated Jade Otway at court four, 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-2. However, TCU would clinch the match with a win at court six.
Dmitrichenko continues to lead the team with 12 dual singles wins, followed by Sayfetdinova with 10 and Cristina Tiglea with nine. In doubles, Komac/Sayfetdinova have a team-best 11 dual wins while Olivia Peet/Tiglea are right behind with nine.
In the latest ITA rankings, Sayfetdinova found herself ranked in singles for the fourth time this season as she sits at No. 122. In addition, the duo of Komac and Sayfetdinova moved up three spots to No. 36 in doubles.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
West Virgnia comes into the weekend with an 11-8 overall record and is 1-5 in Big 12 play. Some key wins for the Mountaineers are against Indiana, Temple, Kansas State and Dayton. They have dropped matches to Kansas, Baylor, Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. The Mountaineers are led in singles by four players who all have nine dual wins – Camilla Bossi, Maja Dodik, Michaela Kucharova and Momoko Nagato. In doubles, the duo of Nagato and Kucharova lead the team with 11 dual wins, followed by Ting-Pei Chang and Bossi with eight.
Iowa State is ranked No. 12 in the latest ITA rankings and holds a 14-4 overall record with a 4-2 conference record. The Cyclones have picked up wins over No. 18 UCLA, No. 10 Miami, No. 9 Vanderbilt, No. 1 Texas and No. 17 Oklahoma State. Their losses come against No. 23 Oklahoma, No. 5 Georgia and No. 15 Auburn. Iowa State is led in singles by Miska Kadleckova with 15 wins and Ange Oby with 13. In doubles, the pairing of Kadleckova and Sofia Cabezas have a team-best 10 wins on the year. Two Cyclones are ranked in singles as Thasaporn Naklo is No. 56 and Oby checks in at No. 74. In doubles, Naklo and Anna Supapitch are No. 52, Oby/Xinyi Nong are No. 57 and the duo of Oby/Chie Kezuka are No. 62.
Opponents in the Rankings
Iowa State
Singles
No. 56 Thasaporn Naklo
No. 74 Ange Oby
Iowa State
Doubles
No. 52 Anna Supapitch/Thasoporn Naklo
No. 57 Ange Oby/Xinyi Nong
No. 62 Ange Oby/Chie Kezuka
FOLLOW ALONG
Live stats for West Virginia are available here, while live stats for the Iowa State match can be found here. Follow @TexasTechWTEN on Twitter for updates and scores of the matches.
Players Mentioned
