No. 14 Lady Raiders Advance to Big 12 Semifinals

Friday, April 27

Austin, Texas

3 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

Kansas State

Photo by: Liz Parke

No. 14 Lady Raiders Advance to Big 12 Semifinals

April 27, 2018 | Women's Tennis

Box Score Big 12 Championship Central Big 12 Championship Bracket

Texas Tech to face No. 7 Oklahoma State on Saturday at 3 p.m.

AUSTIN – The No. 14 Texas Tech Women's Tennis team advanced to the semifinals for the fourth straight year as the Lady Raiders took down No. 42 Kansas State, 4-1, on Friday.

"I'm proud of the way we battled back after losing four first sets and not panicking and being able to turn some of those," Head Coach Todd Petty said. "It was definitely a good team performance."

Texas Tech (19-5) clinched the doubles point over Kansas State (14-10) to take a 1-0 advantage into singles play. No. 21 doubles pair Sabrina Federici and Sarah Dvorak led the way with a 6-3 win on court one before Felicity Maltby and Gabriela Talaba won their 13^th straight match with the 6-4 clincher on court two.

The Wildcats won four out of the six first sets. Federici was the first Lady Raider to finish singles. She picked up a 6-2, 6-3 victory on court four to give Tech a 2-0 lead. With the win, Federici is no. 16-3 on the season and extends her win streak to four matches.

Talaba battled with Kansas State's Margot Decker to a 7-5 first set before regaining control of the match. Talaba captured the win and the third point of the day with a 6-3 win in the second set.

Marie Linares put K-State on the board as she defeated Alex Valenstein in straight sets (6-4, 6-3).

With three courts left, all three Lady Raiders won their second sets to force a decisive third set. Maltby was the first to pick up the set two win. After dropping a 6-4 first set, Maltby tied the match with a 6-2 win. From there, Maltby controlled the match and clinched the win with a 6-2 victory in the final set.

UP NEXT
The Lady Raiders advance to the semifinal match where they will face Oklahoma State tomorrow at 3 p.m. Baylor and Texas will play in the other semifinal match at 3 p.m. tomorrow.