Wichita State tennis is having a moment. Men, women surging with ranked wins
Wichita State tennis is having a moment.
It was a statement weekend for the Shockers, as the No. 36-ranked women’s tennis team won its 10th straight match and the No. 64-ranked men’s tennis team delivered the program’s first win over Oklahoma State in nearly three decades. Both teams added impressive ranked victories to what is turning into a memorable spring.
The women got it started on Saturday with a 4-3 road win over No. 42 Rice in Houston. The victory pushed WSU to 12-3 and extended its winning streak to 10 matches, while also giving the program its highest-ranked win since a victory over No. 39 Gonzaga on March 11, 2019.
“Today was another gritty team victory,” women’s coach Jacob Eddins told GoShockers.com. “We got off to a great start in doubles and it was huge to get that first point on the board.”
That early point proved critical. WSU grabbed the doubles point behind a 6-3 win from Theodora Chantava and Kristina Kudryavtseva at No. 2, then watched its other two doubles teams rally from 5-4 deficits.
The No. 12-ranked pair of Xin Tong Wang and Giorgia Roselli closed out a 7-5 win at No. 1 to secure the point, giving the Shockers their 12th doubles point of the season and 11th in a row.
Rice answered by taking four of six first sets in singles, but WSU stayed steady. Roselli rolled to a 6-4, 6-0 win at No. 2, then Wang added a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory at No. 1 to put the Shockers on the brink.
After Rice evened the team score at 3-3, the match came down to No. 5, where Vichitraporn Vimuktananda bounced back from a first-set loss to win 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 and clinch the match. It was her fifth match-clinching victory this season.
“Credit to Rice for its response after losing doubles to take four first sets, but our girls stuck with it and battled back to give each other a chance to win,” Eddins said. “I am so proud of this group for playing with confidence in the big moments of this match and giving us another great win on the road against a really talented Rice team.”
The men followed with a statement of their own Sunday, knocking off No. 34 Oklahoma State 4-3 at the Coleman Tennis Complex. The win lifted WSU to 9-7, extended its winning streak to five matches and marked the Shockers’ first victory over the Cowboys since April 3, 1996. It was also the program’s highest-ranked win since defeating No. 32 Memphis on April 22, 2021.
Like the women, the men built from doubles. After dropping the No. 2 match, Alejandro Jacome and Felix Bockelmann-Evans responded with a 6-4 win at No. 3, then Pablo Roche Alcaya and Zaid Al Mashni rallied for a 6-4 win at No. 1 to clinch the doubles point.
That edge didn’t last easily. Oklahoma State seized momentum by taking five of six first sets in singles and claiming the first two completed matches for a 2-1 lead. But WSU answered through Ilias Worthington, who won 6-4, 7-6 (3) at No. 1 to tie the score, and Rodrigo Cruz, who recovered from a first-set loss to win 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 at No. 6 and put the Shockers ahead 3-2.
After OSU tied the match again with a three-set win at No. 5, everything rested on No. 2 singles. There, Al Mashni delivered the clincher, recovering from a first-set tiebreak loss to grind out a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory. It was his second straight match-clinching win.
Both teams are trending the right way a little more than a month before the American Conference tournament on April 15-19, as the men will head to Tulsa and the women will compete in Houston.
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