THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014
PAGE 7
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ROYALS TIMELINE
The Royals' long journey to their second World Series in team history
Editor's note: The journey took longer than a trip around the bases.
2014: Advanced to the playoffs for the first time since 1985
Source: MLB.com
Doubles team highlights tennis trip to ITA Regionals
SKYLAR ROLSTAD
@SkyRolSports
Senior Maria Belen Ludueña and junior Maria Cardona competed Monday morning in the semifinal of the ITA Regional tournament main doles draw in Stillwater, Okla., and lost 6-3, 6-0 to Oklahoma State's sixth-seeded pair of Katarina Adamovic and Vladia Babic.
Adamovic and Babic went on to lose in the final to Okla-
noma State teammates Viktoriya Lushkova and Kelsey Laurente. Lushkova and Laurente were seeded first in the doubles draw and Lushkova won the singles draw at regionals.
Ludueña and Cardona were one of two doubles pairs seeded out of the top eight who made it to the semifinal. They defeated Oklahoma State's eighth-seeded Carla Tur Mari/Maria Alvarez 8-3 to advance to the quarterfinal.
Coach Todd Chapman was happy with how his team played doubles over the weekend.
"Any competitive player or coach is never satisfied after losing," Chapman said. "With that being said, I believe they had a good tournament."
Another player who did well in this tournament was freshman Smith Hinton, who won two matches in the singles qualifying draw and went on to the second round in
the main singles draw. In the doubles bracket, Hinton and her partner, freshman Madison Harrison, advanced to the round of 16.
As a freshman, Hinton leads the team with a singles record of 8-3. She spoke about how her fitness has helped her adjust to college tennis.
She also explained how Ludueña and Cardona's success in doubles has made the team more confident going into doubles competition.
"My fitness has gotten a lot better," Hinton said. "Here we do a lot of fitness. My tennis was fine, but the fitness helped me to feel more confident playing matches and I can be out there for longer than other girls. I feel like I've gotten a lot stronger."
"They're a really good team," she said. "It's cool to see they've played together for the last two or three years. It gives a lot of the other girls confidence that if we practice
with a certain partner or do whatever coach says, we can do really well, too."
most of the team is finished for the fall season. Four players will be sent to Houston at the end of October for the Houston Invitational. The main tennis season will begin in January with Kansas facing New Mexico.
Edited by Kelsi Kirwin
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