LEXINGTON, Ky. — After over three weeks since their last match, the Bellarmine women's tennis team dropped an in-state match at Kentucky by a final score of 5-2 on Sunday evening.
 
Sophomore Lailaa Bashir and senior Channing Varnum nabbed singles wins in the loss.
 
"I was proud of the team today," Knights Head Coach Brian Slack.  "We came out with a lot of energy and fight in this match and had an opportunity to push them to the limit."
 
Kentucky earned the doubles point with wins at the no. 2 and no. 3 slots.  Bellarmine's no. 1 team of Ekaterina Tikhonko and Vendula Kryslova led 5-4, but the match went unfinished.
 
Bashir earned the first power-five singles win of her career, besting Ellie Eades at no. 2 singles in straight sets 7-5, 6-0.  Varnum claimed a victory by forfeiture at no. 6 singles for Bellarmine, but Kentucky captured the remaining singles victories.  At the no. 1 position, Tikhonko battled no. 74 ranked Florencia Urrutia to three sets, but ultimately fell 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. 
 
"I like our energy from top to bottom," Slack added.  "This was great after a couple weeks, and you can see the progress we have made in that time. We will get back to practice this week and prepare for our conference opener!"
 
Bellarmine starts ASUN play on Friday with a 1:00 p.m. (12:00 p.m. CT) match at North Alabama.

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