Though they hadn’t played together since mid-March, the University of Kansas doubles pairing of Nina Khmelnitckaia and Anastasia Rychagova advanced out of the first round of the NCAA Women’s Tennis Doubles Championship.

The team of KU juniors defeated Central Florida’s Ksenia Kuznetsova and Maria Martinez in a three-set match Thursday at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Ranked 20th in the nation, KU’s Khmelnitckaia and Rychagova moved on to the Round of 16 in the 32-team doubles tournament.

“We are so proud of (Rychagova) and Nina,” head coach Todd Chapman said. “They haven’t played a match together in nine weeks, and to come through in such a pressure situation is quite unbelievable.”

The KU pair will face Vanderbilt’s Fernanda Contreras and Astra Sharma on Friday.