KINGSVILLE, Texas – A busy month of February for the Texas A&M-Kingsville tennis team begins with three games in three days for the Javelinas, who first will tangle with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday at 1 p.m. in Corpus Christi, and then they'll head to San Antonio for matches against Northeastern State at 10 a.m. and Trinity at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Kingsville will be attempting to bounce back from a 7-0 defeat at the hands of the UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros on Sunday. In order for the Javelinas to rebound, they'll need solid performances out of their two ranked singles players, Valerie Ruiz and Victoria Romanovskaia, who are both in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's top 20 in the South Central. Phonephathep Philavong will be attempting to build on her performance in Edinburg, where she was the only Javelina to take a set.
The Islanders didn't compete for the first time until Jan. 24th, when they took on Prairie View A&M and won in dominating fashion, 7-0. They followed that up with a 6-1 loss to the University of Houston two days later. TAMCC entered this season as the defending champions in the Southland Conference after capturing the league title for the second straight year in 2017. Their 2018 roster includes four student-athletes who were named all-conference first-team last year, including the Southland's reigning freshman of the year, Louise Trigona.
Things don't get easier for the Javelinas in their first match on Saturday, when they take on the school that won the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic Association crown, the No. 16 Northwestern RiverHawks. Coach Jon Parker's top pupils are sophomores Betka Gombarova and Tatjana Stoll. Gombarova who put together a record of 16-5 in singles play last season and earned a spot on the All-MIAA first-team. Stoll is currently ranked as the 23rd best singles player in Division II by the ITA. Stoll also teams with Molly Worden to form the country's No. 15 doubles tandem.
This Saturday will represent the first action for Trinity University since they participated in the ITA Regional Championships in September. The Tigers rose as high as No. 16 in the rankings a year ago, during a season where they captured the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference title. For her efforts, coach Gretchen Rush was selected as the league's coach of the year and was joined by five Trinity student-athletes in gaining all-conference recognition. One of those honorees was junior Andrea De Leon, who owned a record of 17-4 in singles play in 2017 and teamed with fellow returner Caroline Kutach to form a doubles duo that went 10-1.
The Javelinas will be taking on two teams they faced in 2017 in Northwestern and Trinity. While they were defeated by the RiverHawks, the Hoggies were able to edge the Tigers 5-4. Wins by Romanovskaia, Ruiz, Stephanie Baerman and Julia Rauer in singles play and a doubles victory by Erika Larrea and Viviana Ortiz led TAMUK past Trinity.
A recap of the action on both days for the Javelinas will be posted on Javelinaathletics.com. Receive content for Texas A&M-Kingsville tennis by following @JavelinaTennis on Twitter and Instagram, liking the official Facebook page of Javelina Athletics (/JavelinaSports), and subscribing to the JavelinaAthletics YouTube channel.
