No. 15 Texas Tech Lady Raiders Top Kansas 4-1 to Advance to Big 12 Semifinals

In the Big 12 Championship semifinals on Friday afternoon at the Hurd Tennis Center, the No. 15-ranked Texas Tech Lady Raiders beat the No. 39-ranked Kansas Jayhawks 4-1 after a challenging game. With the win, Texas Tech (20-2) goes to the conference semifinals for the second year in a row.

The match turned around at the doubles point, with grueling play on all three stages. At the top, Kansas' Heike Janse Van Vuuren and Gracie Mulville beat Tech's No. 7 pair Avelina Sayfetdinova and Mariia Hlahola 6-4. Tech fought back hard on courts two and three, though. On court two, Yekaterina Dmitrichenko and Hailey Murphy came back from being down 5-3 to win 7-5. On court three, Andreea Lila and Jermine Sherif won 7-5 after a tense back-and-forth. This gave them the doubles point.

With a 6-2, 6-1 win in singles, Murphy quickly made the Lady Raiders' lead bigger. Kansas got back on track with a win on court three, but Lila and Sherif both secured significant wins that sealed the match.

Lila fought hard in the second set and won 6-3, 6-4 on court four. Sherif beat Anna Putilina in three tough sets on court six, which was the deciding point.

Texas Tech will now wait for the winner of the Baylor vs. Arizona game. They will play again on Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Big 12 playoffs.

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