KINGSVILLE, Texas – After dropping Trinity University for their first win of 2018, the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's tennis team will make use of the Javelina Tennis Courts for the first time this season, first hosting Laredo College at 10 a.m., then taking on Prairie View A&M at 3 p.m. on Wednesday in Kingsville, Texas. Those contests will be followed by road matchups with No. 8 St. Mary's University at 2 p.m. on Friday and No. 13 Central Oklahoma at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
In their 7-2 victory over the Tigers on Saturday, the Javelinas swept the doubles portion of the match, led by an 8-4 victory by Laura Montalvo and Stephanie Baerman. Phonephathep Philavong and Viviana Ortiz also collected an 8-6 triumph in San Antonio, while the South Central's No. 7 tandem of Valerie Ruiz and Victoria Romanovskaia picked up another win. Ruiz and Romanovskaia lead the Javelinas with five doubles victories.
Montalvo continues to establish herself as one of Autumn Williams's top singles players. She not only defeated Trinity's Paulina Garcia on Saturday, but also picked up a point for the Javelinas earlier in the day against Northeastern State, downing Karla Tomaic in straight sets. A freshman from Cochabamba, Bolivia, Montalvo owns a record of 8-2 in singles play, the best on the squad. Ruiz's singles record stands at 6-6 after she, too, picked up a win in San Antonio.
In Laredo and Prairie View, the Javelinas will face two teams they squared off against last season and they had success in both instances. The Hoggies pounded the Palominos 8-1 and followed that up by slipping past the Panthers 4-3. This season, Prairie View comes to Kingsville intent on picking up their first win of what has so far been an 0-6 campaign. The Panthers last played on Friday against St. Edwards and suffered a 5-2 defeat. Their last two matches were postponed. The most talented player on Coach Duane Williams's roster is senior Shaddae Findley, who was an all-conference first-team choice as a junior.
The beginning of the season for Prairie View A&M has been in stark contrast to that of St Mary's. The Rattlers have reeled off three straight wins to begin their spring semester, two of which were clean sweeps. The one exception to that rule was a Friday win over No. 16 Northeastern State by a 6-3 score. In doubles play, St. Mary's has yet to lose a match and their top tandem of Kaylin Kruseman and Tyra Timm sits at No. 9 in the nation. Both student-athletes ended last season as All-Americans.
This busy week for TAMUK concludes on Saturday against another ranked program in Central Oklahoma and Saturday will mark the first competition of the spring for the Bronchos, who only played in two exhibition matches during the month of January. The Bronchos entered the 2017-18 season following an appearance in the NCAA Central Regional. Alli Hodges has earned the title of No. 1 for coach Jaron Maestas and is also ranked as the No. 29 singles player in Division II.
At the conclusion of each match, visit Javelinaathletics.com for a complete recap. 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.
