AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas freshman Kylie Collins has been named the Big 12 Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week, the league office announced Tuesday afternoon. Collins earned the first weekly conference honor of her career.
Collins went a perfect 5-0 (3-0 in doubles, 2-0 in singles) during UT's weekend run to the championship match of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Stillwater. This marked the program's first trip to the ITA National Indoors championship match since 2006.
Collins paired with fellow freshman Lulu Sun on court 1 in doubles and recorded three wins over the three-day event, including a pair of victories over top-three nationally ranked opponents. The duo defeated UCLA's top-ranked pair of Elysia Bolton and Jada Hart by a 6-4 score in Saturday's semifinals. They returned on Sunday to record a 6-2 victory against North Carolina's third-ranked tandem of Sara Daavettila and Alexa Graham in the championship match.
In singles action, Collins clinched Texas' 4-2 dual-match win against No. 2 UCLA in the semifinals with a 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) victory on court 6 against Annette Goulak. Trailing 5-3 in the opening set, Collins won the next four games to rally for a 7-5 set win. Later in the second-set tiebreaker, Goulak claimed the first point but Collins responded by winning the next seven points to seal her victory. During Sunday's narrow 4-3 loss to No. 1 North Carolina, Collins posted an impressive 7-5, 6-3 win on court 5 against No. 49-ranked Makenna Jones. Tied at 5-5 in the opening set, Collins broke Jones and then fought back from 0-40 in the following game to hold serve on a deuce point and earn a 7-5 set win. Leading 4-3 in the second set, Collins held serve on a deuce point and then broke Jones to finish off her undefeated weekend.
No. 3 Texas (7-1) returns to action when it hosts Rice on Saturday, Feb. 20. First serve is set for 12 p.m. Central at the Texas Tennis Center.
