SE: K-State Tennis Continues Historic Season with Heart-Filled, 4-3 Comeback Win Over Kentucky in First Round of NCAA Tournament

By Corbin McGuire

Immediately after clinching her match, K-State women's tennis sophomore Ines Mesquita started pacing speedily over to watch freshman Maria Linares' court.

Mesquita had just tied up K-State's first round NCAA Tournament match against Kentucky at 3-3 and knew Linares was close to finishing hers as well in a tiebreaker.

"I knew she needed like one point to win," said Mesquita, who won at No. 6 singles, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-5. "I was walking fast to her court."

Mesquita, who celebrated her 20^thbirthday on Friday, didn't stop walking, either. She didn't have to.

Linares clinched her battle at No. 2 singles — 7-6 (9-7), 3-6, 7-6 (8-6) — as Mesquita was coming over, turning her teammate's brisk walk into a dead sprint to celebrate a 4-3 postseason victory with her entire team on Friday in Evanston, Illinois.

"It gave me the chills," Mesquita said of the moment, as K-State, one of the last at-large teams in the NCAA Tournament, battled back from a 3-1 deficit against Kentucky and will face No. 14 overall seed Northwestern on Saturday at noon. "We were supposed to be done and they gave us another opportunity. We came here and proved that we deserved to be here."

The Wildcats had been here before. Not the NCAA Tournament, necessarily, at least not this youthful group that earned the program's first postseason berth since 2003 and only its fourth overall. But the Wildcats had faced more than one 3-1 deficit this season. Friday marked the third time they had overcome the hole for a win.

"It didn't mean anything to us," Mesquita said. "It didn't matter if we were down 3-1."

Mesquita and Linares clinched K-State's victories the other two times it overcame a 3-1 hole this season, against William & Mary and Washington State, respectively. Both Wildcats were prepared to do it again.

"Our schedule worked out miracles for us this year," K-State head coach Danielle Steinberg said. "This is not the first time we were in this situation. It's not the first time that Ines and Maria were in this situation, and I think once you have it under your belt it's a little easier to know, 'Hey, I can do this, I've done it before.'"

Linares grinded through her match the entire day.

The Big 12 Freshman of the Year won the first set in a tiebreaker and needed a comeback of her own in the third set to keep her team's season alive. Down 2-5 as Mesquita was in the early portion of her third set, Linares won point after point to take three straight games and eventually force a tiebreaker in her third set.

"I saw Ines' match and I said, 'OK I still need to push a little more,'" Linares said, who toned down her aggressiveness on the court after talking with volunteer assistant coach Palma Juhasz. "I tried to put the ball in play and tried to move the girl. I did the best I can and we won."

Steinberg said as soon as Linares tied her third set at 5-5, there was no doubt within the team about what was going to happen next.

"She's got a bigger heart than anyone out here," Steinberg said. "I think that's what made a difference and makes her who she is and the player that she is, that big heart that she has and knowing that in tough situations that she's going to have a bigger heart than her opponent and she's going to want it more. That's exactly what happened to day. She just wanted it more and it showed."

K-State's comeback, while finished by Mesquita and Linares, started with freshman Margot Decker at No. 1 singles. After dropping the first set, 2-6, Decker bounced back by winning the first five games of the second en route to tying the match with a 6-2 set win.

"Margot winning that second set gave us so much energy," Steinberg said. "Margot's really the one who gave us the energy today to believe that we could actually do this."

Once Decker adjusted to Emily Fanning, a "tricky player," Steinberg said, the native of France gained permanent control of the match. She ended it with a 6-3 win in the third set.

Decker's win gave K-State its second point, as freshman Anna Turco notched the Wildcats' first when, while up 5-4 in the first set, Kentucky's Lesedi Jacobs retired because of injury.

Both wins ultimately gave Mesquita and Linares the chance they needed at the end to make sure this wasn't the last time this team played together.

"Before this match, really what we said is, 'This is a gift for us. This is just another opportunity for us to play together as a team, this group, and if this means this is the last time that we're together, then we're going to give it everything we have for this group,'" Steinberg said. "Now we have another chance, another gift. I think that really sunk with this group, knowing that this could be the last time."

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: K-State Tennis Continues Historic Season with Heart-Filled, 4-3 Comeback Win Over Kentucky in First Round of NCAA Tournament

Players Mentioned

Margot Decker

Maria Linares

Ines Mesquita

Anna Turco

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