Against No. 1 Oklahoma State and No. 75 Kansas State, WVU Tennis walked away with two losses and arguably its most successful week of the Big 12 season.
The Mountaineers traveled to Stillwater, Okla. on Thursday followed by a Saturday match in Manhattan, Kan. against the Kansas State Wildcats. West Virginia entered the matches unranked after falling to UCF and out of the ITA Top 75 last week.
Oklahoma State, the 21-0 top-ranked team in the nation, gave each Mountaineer a taste of the best on Thursday, making use of all five of its singles players in the top 100. Only graduate student Kristina Novak, the 2024Â ITA Indoor National Championship Most Outstanding Player, was unranked in OSU’s singles lineup.
Before singles, though, West Virginia got a shot at securing the doubles point. No Cowgirl pairings were ranked in Thursday’s doubles pool, though redshirt sophomore Anastasiya Komar, who is ranked with two different partners, did play on court one.
Court one, not coincidentally, saw the first completed match of the day, as senior Momoko Nagato and junior Michaela Kucharova fell to OSU’s Carrington and Komar 6-2. Graduate student Ting-Pei Chang and junior Tatiana Lipatova fell 6-1 on court three soon after, ending the doubles round with an OSU point.
Experienced Mountaineers shined as the singles round began. Freshman Maya Bordereau quickly fell on court two to No. 4 player in the nation, Ange Oby Kajuru, 6-3, 6-0, and redshirt sophomore Maja Dodik fell similarly, 6-0, 6-2 to No. 65 Lucia Peyre.
Down 3-0, though, Momoko Nagato and graduate student Love-Star Alexis stood up to top competition. Each player, on court four and one respectively, lost the first set 6-2 but challenged her ranked opponent in the next.
Alexis, facing No. 10 Komar, took down the reigning Southern Regionals singles champion in set two 6-4 to force the only three-set match of the day. Nagato, meanwhile, did fall to No. 77 Safiya Carrington but kept things close in the 7-5 set two.
With the OSU victory secured, Mountaineers Ting-Pei Chang, who fell 6-0, 6-2 to No. 81 Ayumi Miyamoto, and junior Tatiana Lipatova, who dropped 6-2, 7-5 to Kristina Novak, fell before Alexis’s match came to an end.
Love-Star Alexis kept the match unbelievably close in the duel between each team’s top seed. The Middle Tennessee State transfer with a 4-11 record on court one nearly took down Komar in the tiebreaking set, but, in the 11-9 game, the top-10 player ended the 7-0 sweep of WVU.
A 7-0 team sweep is not typically the way coach Miha Lisac would want his Mountaineers to start the week, but against the Cowgirls, this loss actually carried positive momentum to Manhattan, Kan.
After Chang and Lipatova fell 6-3 in the first completed doubles match of the day, Nagato and Kucharova secured a statement victory on court one with the same score to force the third doubles match to matter.
Dodik and Bordereau, West Virginia’s most reliable doubles pairing for much of the season, brought early excitement to the match by forcing a tiebreaking game. When all was said and done, though, the team fell 7-6 (1) as WVU lost the doubles point, something it has only won without once this season.
Nevertheless, WVU entered the singles round fighting. Bordereau was once again the first player to fall in the round, losing 6-2, 6-4 on court two, but Tatiana Lipatova quickly made up for it on court six, securing a 6-1, 6-3 victory.
This pattern repeated itself immediately after, with Dodik falling 6-4, 6-1 and Michaela Kucharova bouncing back on court five with a pair of 6-3 set wins. Momoko Nagato took down Veronika Kulhava 6-4, 6-3 to tie the match at three points each, meaning Love-Star Alexis once again represented WVU in the day’s final match.
Like that against Komar, Alexis’s match went to three sets against Vanesa Suarez on court one. Alexis was victorious 6-3 in the first set but fell 6-4 in the second to force the final set.
With the match on the line, though, the Wildcat sophomore repeated her 6-4 victory to end the match and weekend for West Virginia. The match was WVU’s fifth with a 4-3 outcome in the season and its first in Big 12 matches. The Mountaineers are now 3-2 in such matches.
In a conference with 10 top 75 teams, West Virginia does not necessarily have a break after this tough week of matches. The Mountaineers will take on No. 50 Kansas on Friday at 5 p.m. and face the Iowa State Cyclones the following Sunday morning at 11 a.m. Both matches will be played at the Summit Tennis Academy in Morgantown.
Final Scores vs. Oklahoma State
Doubles Results
- Safiya Carrington/Anastasiya Komar (OSU) def. Michaela Kucharova/Momoko Nagato (WVU), 6-2
- Ayumi Miyamoto/Ange Oby Kajuru (OSU) vs. Maya Bordereau/Maja Dodik (WVU), 5-2 (unfinished)
- Lucia Peyre/Kristina Novak (OSU) def. Ting-Pei Chang/Tatiana Lipatova, 6-1
Singles Results
- No. 10 Anastasiya Komar (OSU) def. Love-Star Alexis (WVU), 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (9)
- No. 4 Ange Oby Kajuru (OSU) def. Maya Bordereau (WVU), 6-3, 6-0
- No. 65 Lucia Peyre (OSU) def. Maja Dodik (WVU), 6-0, 6-2
- No. 77 Safiya Carrington def. Momoko Nagato (WVU), 6-2, 7-5
- No. 81 Ayumi Miyamoto (OSU) def. Ting-Pei Chang (WVU), 6-0, 6-2
- Kristina Nova (OSU) def. Tatiana Lipatova (WVU), 6-2, 7-5
Final Scores vs. Kansas State
Doubles Results
- Michaela Kucharova/Momoko Nagato (WVU) def. Veronika Kulhava/Tereza Polakova (KSU), 6-3
- Maralgoo Chogsomjav/Maria Santos (KSU) def. Maya Bordereau/Maja Dodik (WVU), 7-6 (1)
- Jillian Harkin/Manami Ukita (KSU) def. Ting-Pei Chang/Tatiana Lipatova (WVU), 6-3
Singles Results
- Vanesa Suarez (KSU) def. Love-Star Alexis (WVU), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
- Charlotte Keitel (KSU) def. Maya Bordereau (WVU), 6-2, 6-4
- Momoko Nagato (WVU) def. Veronika Kulhava (KSU), 6-4, 6-3
- Maralgoo Chogsomjav (KSU) def. Maja Dodik (WVU), 6-4, 6-1
- Michaela Kucharova (WVU) def. Tereza Polakova (KSU), 6-3, 6-3
- Tatiana Lipatova (WVU) def. Maria Santos (KSU), 6-1, 6-3
Photo from WVU Women’s Tennis
