COLUMBIA, Mo. – Junior Mackenzy Middlebrooks (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) earned a singles win over a ranked foe but the Mizzou tennis team fell to the No. 25 Kentucky Wildcats, 4-1, on Sunday morning at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center in Lexington, Ky.

The Tigers fell to 10-3 overall and 0-2 in SEC competition with the loss, while the Wildcats improved to 11-1 and 2-0.  

SINGLES

After Kentucky earned the doubles point, Middlebrooks knotted the match at 1-1 with a win at No. 1 singles. The Tiger easily took down No. 47 Justina Mikulskte, 6-0, 6-2, for her 11th singles victory of the spring.

The Wildcats regained the lead, 2-1, when sophomore Ellie Wright (Gainesville, Fla.) fell to Tiphanie Fiquet, 6-3, 6-1, at No. 4 action.

Wins at No. 2 and 3 singles secured the victory of Kentucky. At No. 2, Akville Parazinskaite defeated junior Serena Nash (Bradford, England), 6-2, 6-4, and Lesedi Jacobs posted a 7-6, 6-0 win over freshman Lisa Fukutoku (Tokyo, Japan) at No. 3 singles.

DOUBLES

Kentucky picked up victories at No. 1 and 2 doubles to take the doubles point. Mikulskyte and Parazinskaite claimed a 6-0 win over Middlebrooks and Wright at No. 1, while Jacobs and Fiquet defeated Fukutoku and Nash, 6-2.

QUOTABLES

Mizzou Head Coach Colt Gaston
"Another tough one for us today. I didn't think we got off to the start we wanted to in doubles. But Mackenzy did a great job of playing her kind of tennis in singles and got us a point early to even the match. Overall there were as lot of fight out there today, we just need to continue to build on how to play the big points and understand our type of tennis in those pressure situations. We definitely learned a lot this weekend and will put in some hard work next week to prepare for South Carolina."

UP NEXT

The Tigers return to the Mizzou Tennis Complex next weekend for three matches. The Tigers face No. 10 South Carolina on Friday, March 8 at 5 p.m. before a doubleheader on Sunday, March 10, with matches against Florida at Noon and UMKC at 4 p.m. 

RESULTS

Doubles
1. #50 Justina Mikulskyte/Akvile Parazinskaite (UK) def. Mackenzy Middlebrooks/Ellie Wright, 6-0
2. Lesedi Jacobs/Tiphanie Fiquet (UK) def. Lisa Fukutoku/Marta Oliveira (MIZ), 6-2
3. Anastasia Tkachenko/Alexis Merrill (UK) vs. Vivien Abraham/Taylor Gruber (MIZ), 5-4, unfinished
Order of finish: 1,2

Singles
1.Mackenzy Middlebrooks (MIZ) def. #46 Justina Mikulskyte (UK), 6-0, 6-2
2. Akvile Parazinskatie (UK) def. Serena Nash (MIZ), 6-2, 6-4
3. Lesedi Jacobs (UK) def. Lisa Fukutoku (MIZ), 7-6,
4. Tiphanie Fiquet (UK) def. Ellie Wright (MIZ), 6-2, 6-1
5. Diana Tkachenko (UK) vs. Vivien Abraham (MIZ), 4-0, unfinished
6. Taylor Gruber (MIZ) vs. Anastasia Tkachencko (UK), 2-1, unfinished
Order of finish: 1,4,2,3