Tennis
The Nebraska men’s and women’s tennis teams both hosted out-of-conference opponents over the weekend and had mixed results. The Husker women were shut out on Friday in what was their first loss of the season. The Husker men, meanwhile, defeated UCF 4-1 on Sunday morning in Lincoln.
The Nebraska women’s tennis team dropped their first match of the season to Colorado State on Friday evening at the Sid and Hazel Dillon Tennis Center.
Little was working for the Huskers as they suffered their first loss of the season in dominant fashion. They kept most of their matches close but were unable to pull through when it mattered.
The day began with a pair of doubles matches, with both wins being awarded to the visiting Rams. At the No. 2 spot, Nebraska sophomore Anfisa Danilchenko and senior Samantha Alicea lost 6-3 to Colorado State’s Zara Lennon and Ky Ecton. To give CSU the doubles point for the match, Vivien Sanberg and Isabel Adrover Gallego took a close 6-4 loss to Radka Buzkova and Emily Dush.
Singles play had a very similar outcome. The Rams won the first two singles matches quickly, at No. 1 and No. 5, to move within one point of closing out the shutout. The closest match Nebraska almost won was at No. 4 singles. A matchup between Alicea and Colorado State’s Lennon. Alicea won the first set 6-3 but lost the second 6-2, and the tiebreaker went to Lennon as she won it 10-8.
The Huskers are now 4-1 and will take on South Dakota on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
Conversely, men’s tennis defeated the University of Central Florida on Sunday 4-1.
Sophomores Roni Hietaranta and Lars Johann gave the Huskers their first win of the day at No. 3 doubles, winning comfortably 6-3. To hand Nebraska the first point of the match, graduate student William Gleason and sophomore Calvin Mueller won at No. 2 6-3. In the singles department, the Huskers won three of the five matches to secure the win. To keep things rolling for the Huskers, Gleason defeated UCF’s Mehdi Benchakroun easily 6-1, 6-1. In the No. 3 spot, Johann defeated Lleyton Cronje in a third set after winning the first set 6-3, losing the second 3-6 and taking the third set 6-3. Lastly, to end the fight, Nebraska’s Nic Wiedenhorn defeated Luca Hotze at No. 6, 6-4, 6-1 to end the day.
The Huskers brought high intensity in their victory over UCF Sunday morning. The men’s team will be back in action this Friday as they head to Tulsa, Oklahoma to take on the University of Tulsa.
Women’s Golf
Nebraska women’s golf picked its season back up this week, finishing second of 14 teams at the FAU Paradise Invitational in Florida. As a team, the Huskers scored 284-282-294 across the two-day invitational for a total score of 860. They finished behind first-place Vanderbilt by 25 strokes.
Freshman Kelli Ann Strand and sophomore Miu Takahashi both placed in the top ten for Nebraska as they continue their strong season. This was Strand’s fourth and Takahashi’s third top-10 finish of the season. They have also both claimed an individual tournament title on the year.
Strand had the best performance in the tournament, placing seventh overall. She shot a 70-70-71 for a total of 211 for the top-ten finish. Takahashi wasn’t too far back, as she only finished three strokes behind Strand. Takahashi did better than Strand through the first two rounds, shooting a 69-70. However, a final round score of 75 pushed her down in the rankings, although not enough to keep her out of the top 10. Takahashi finished in a four-way tie for 10th with a total score of 214.
Graduate student Megan Whittaker finished tied for 20th with a total score of 217 — three strokes behind her teammate Takahashi in 10th place. Through three rounds, Whittaker shot 73-71-73. This was Whittaker’s fifth top-25 finish, as she has placed in the top 25 in all but one invitational. In the Hurricane Invitational, she placed 29th.
The other two golfers for the Huskers were juniors Lindsey Thiele and Michaela Vavrova. Theile finished tied for 51st and Vavrova finished tied for 53rd. Thiele shot a 79-71-75 for a total of 225, and Vavrova shot a 72-77-77 for a total of 226, just one stroke behind Thiele.
This is Nebraska’s fourth top-two finish of the year. The Huskers’ next meet will be in Peoria, Arizona for the Westbrook Spring Invitational from Feb. 26-27.