SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Victoria Romanovskaia and Valerie Ruiz teamed up for a doubles victory and then each collected wins in the singles bracket in helping the Texas A&M-Kingsville tennis team to a 7-2 victory over the Trinity Tigers in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday at the William H. Bell Athletic Center. The win over Trinity represented the second match of the day for the Javelinas, who were defeated by No. 16 Northeastern State, 8-1, in the afternoon.
The RiverHawks took all three doubles matches against the Hoggies, including an 8-0 victory by Karla Tomaic and Mayra Jovic over Stephanie Baerman and Laura Montalvo. Ruiz and Romanovskaia faced a tough task against the nation's No. 15 tandem of Tatjana Stoll and Molly Worden. The two TAMUK student-athletes held their own for most of the match before falling 8-4. Phonephathep Philavong and Viviana Ortiz battled Chantal Nosievici and Easton Parker in a hard fought match before the two from Northeastern squeaked out an 8-6 win.
The best showing for Kingsville in singles came from Montalvo, who outlasted Tomaic to get the Javelinas on the board, winning in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5. Ruiz nearly picked up another point for the Javs, taking the first set from Nosievici, but Ruiz was edged in the last two for a final of 3-6, 6-4, 10-8. Romanovskaia fell just short against Worden, 6-4, 7-6 and Julia Rauer was also narrowly defeated, 6-4, 6-4. Northeastern would come away with an 8-1 triumph.
The Javelinas bounced back quickly from their setback against the RiverHawks to dominate the No. 16 team in Division III.
TAMUK laid the groundwork for their first win by sweeping the doubles matches. Montalvo and Baerman bested the team of Ashley DeBauge and Andrea De Leon by a score of 8-4 to start things off. Romanovskaia and Ruiz and Philavong and Ortiz then each scored 8-6 wins to secure three points for the Javs before the teams moved on to the singles portion. Romanovskaia and Ruiz picked up their fifth win of the season as a doubles pairing.
Montalvo kept the momentum going from her doubles triumph into singles play and raced past Paulina Garcia, 6-2, 6-0. Julia Rauer was also on point, picking up a point for the Javs by outplaying Mary Kaffen 6-2, 6-1. Romanovskaia contributed another point to her squad's total by beating Zoe Kaffen, 6-4, 6-2. Baerman was challenged by De Leon, but persevered after losing the first set. The sophomore, playing in her hometown, responded by scrapping her way to a 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 win, securing what would be Kingsville's final point of the day.
The first day of home matches for Autumn Williams and her squad comes on Wednesday, when they are once again scheduled to play twice. First, they'll take on Laredo at 10 a.m., followed by Prairie View A&M at 3 p.m. 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.
