K-State Wraps Up Regular Season Against Nebraska
Apr 20, 2006 | Tennis
MANHATTAN, Kan. - The Wildcats hope to finish the regular season with a win and finish above .500 as they venture north for a match with Nebraska at the NU Varsity Courts on Sunday at noon.
The match will have major implications on the seedings for next week’s Big 12 Tournament as both teams sit in the middle of the conference race. No. 66 Kansas State (9-9, 5-5) looks to snap a two-game skid in conference play while the No. 41 Huskers (12-6, 5-4) try to remain ahead of the Wildcats in the rankings.
SERIES HISTORY: Nebraska holds a 23-9 series edge in 32 meetings with the Wildcats. Kansas State is 3-13 playing in Lincoln. The Huskers have won two in a row against K-State, including a 4-3 decision in Manhattan last year. The last contest in Lincoln was in 2004, a 7-0 victory by Nebraska.
SCOUTING THE HUSKERS: The Huskers returned six players from a squad that went 18-4 in 2004-05, but have been up and down this season en route to a 12-6 record. Nebraska handed Texas A&M its first conference loss of the season two weeks ago with a 5-2 upset in Lincoln, but fell to Oklahoma in a split last weekend. Nebraska enters Sunday’s match tied for fourth in the conference and host Iowa State - 0-10 in conference play - on Saturday. Individually, the Huskers are led by Imke Reimers and Pamela Castillejos, who share the team lead in dual singles wins with 15. Kim Hartmann is the lone ranked Husker at No. 101 in the ITA poll.
LAST TIME OUT: Fernanda Da Valle and Jessica Simosa won in singles play for Kansas State but it wasn’t enough to pull off an upset as the Wildcats fell to No. 17 Texas, 5-2, at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center. The Longhorns looked well on their way to sweeping doubles play, winning at No. 3 and No. 1, but Simosa and Katerina Kudlackova rallied for a tie-break win over Texas’ Kelly Baritot and Kendra Strohm. Texas won the doubles point and took the first three matches of single play to clinch the victory. Da Valle stopped the Longhorns’ run with a win at No. 5 over Baritot, who defaulted in the second set. Simosa followed with a win over Courtney Zauft at the No. 3 position, winning a tie-break, 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8). On Saturday, Texas A&M won five of six singles matches in straight sets and swept doubles play against the Wildcats as Kansas State lost 6-1 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. Fernanda Da Valle snapped the skid for Kansas State with a three-set win over Tiffany Clifford, but the match had already been decided.
UNO MAS: Kansas State head women’s tennis coach Steve Bietau announced the signing of Natasha Vieira to a National Letter of Intent on Wednesday. A five-time female athlete of the year in her hometown of Carabobo, Venezuela, Viera is currently the No. 2 ranked junior player in all of Venezuela. Vieira captured the 2005 Curacao Open last October and reached the semi-final round of the Panama Bowl last spring. Vieira will be the fourth Venezuelan to play for the Wildcats, joining Judith Diaz (2004-05), Simosa (2003-06), and new teammate Viviana Yrureta. Vieira was ranked as high as No. 254 in the International Tennis Federation Junior rankings this spring.
BIG 12 HONORS FORMER CAT: Former Kansas State standout Alena Jecminkova was named to the Big 12 Men’s and Women’s Tennis 10th Anniversary Team as announced by the Big 12 Conference. Jecminkova starred for the Wildcats from 1999-2002, earning All-Big 12 first team status in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Jecminkova is fourth on the all-time singles wins list at K-State with a 67-45 record. Jecminkova reached the NCAA Tournament three times as an individual and advanced to the second round of the 2002 NCAA Championships. In 2002, she was named the Big 12 Conference Player of the Year.
CONSECUTIVE CATS: Kansas State dropped to No. 66 in this week’s ITA Tennis Rankings. Dating back to the final poll of the 2005 season, the Wildcats have now spent 14 consecutive weeks ranked in the top-75 and have appeared in every poll released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and Fila this season. K-State debuted at No. 67 in the preseason poll and remained there through the first three weeks of play before making an upswing to No. 45. The poll streak is nowhere near the 46 consecutive polls the Wildcats appeared in from March 21, 2001 through March 16, 2004. The highest ranking achieved by the Wildcats during the last five seasons is No. 32 in the 2003 final poll.
DOUBLE DIP: Kansas State has won the doubles point ten times in 2006 and are 8-2 when getting the early lead. In a tennis dual, both teams play three doubles matches and the winner of two-out-of-three receives the point. Each singles match is worth one point. The doubles point is played at the beginning of the match and can give a team an early edge or be the deciding factor in a close match. Kansas State is 1-7 when losing the doubles point.
BIETAU REACHES MILESTONE: Kansas State head coach Steve Bietau reached the 200 win plateau as the Wildcats swept past the Wichita State Shockers on Feb. 25. Bietau became the all-time wins leader at Kansas State during just his third season in 1987 and has since gone on to triple the combined wins of his four predecessors. Bietau has the most wins of any active head coach in the Big 12 Conference North Division and is fourth in the entire conference. Bietau’s team’s have reached double digits in the win column in 9-of-21 seasons, including a school-high 15 wins in 2003.
KING OF THE MOUNTAIN: K-State head coach Steve Bietau has the longest tenure of any coach in the Big 12. The leader of the Wildcats is tied with Texas A&M’s Bobby Klienecke. Bietau’s 21 seasons directing the Wildcats trails only Ward Haylett’s 35 seasons as track and field head coach as the longest tenure of any Wildcat coach.
STEADY SIMOSA: Jessica Simosa continues her steady ascent up the Kansas State career leaderboards. The senior from Valencia, Venezuela won nine singles matches in the fall to lead all Wildcats and won her 76th career match on Sunday. Former teammate Maria Rosenberg spent the 2004-05 season rising to the top of the list and is the career wins leader with 79. Simosa has shown constant improvement since her freshman season and turned in her best performance with 21 wins last season. Simosa won 17 matches in her freshman season and 19 during her sophomore campaign. Ten spring doubles wins have also moved Simosa into 3rd all-time with 66 career doubles wins.
WINNING WAYS: After streaking to a record setting 31-7 campaign during her freshman year in 2005, Tamar Kvaratskhelia continued to win matches at a record clip through the fall. Kvaratskhelia, who was the first Wildcat in school history to surpass the 30-win plateau, set the single season winning percentage mark at .816. The sophomore from Tbilisi, Georgia tied for second on the team with eight wins in fall play. Her 17-12 mark in 2005-06 gives her a 48-19 career record, a .716 winning percentage.
IS THAT SCOREBOARD BROKEN?: The Wildcats have played in seven matches this season in which the final score has been 4-3, including six of the last eight. Kansas State is 2-5 in those matches. Since the adoption of the seven point scoring system in 2001, the Wildcats have played in 36 4-3 matches with an average of five per year. K-State played in eight 4-3 matches in 2001, the highest of any year, and have already tied the 2005 mark with seven matches left in the regular season. Kansas State is 11-27 all-time in 4-3 matches and the Wildcats are 45-66 in 111 all-time in matches decided by a single point.
