KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M University-Kingsville women's tennis program will return to action starting on Wednesday, March 21, to host New Mexico State at the Javelina Tennis Courts before heading out on the road yet again for a trio of matches over the weekend.
The Javelinas will square off with Tarleton State in a Lone Star match in Stephenville, Texas, on Friday, March 23, starting at 1 p.m. CT, before heading off to Arlington, Texas, to face Newman and North Central Texas College in a pair of non-conference matches.
TAMUK is fresh off a 2-1 road trip to the Rocky Mountains after defeating Colorado College and CSU-Pueblo while dropping a close match to Metro State.
In the match against Colorado College, the Javelinas swept the doubles portion before taking five of the singles matches for an 8-1 final.
Stephanie Baerman and
Laura Montalvo led the doubles teams with an 8-3 decision while
Julia Rauer swept her opposition in the singles match at back-to-back 6-0 set wins.
Metro State took two of three doubles points as
Victoria Romanovskaia and
Viviana Ortiz posted the lone win, while the singles portion came down to the No. 3 matchup between Montalvo and Courtney Wright. The Roadrunner would claim the win in three sets to secure the team score at 5-4, leaving TAMUK on the backend.
The Javelinas responded in the match against CSU-Pueblo with a perfect 9-0 sweep to cap the road trip. Montalvo and
Martina Urrutia had their hands full in the No. 3 doubles match against Sarah Megilligan and Kristin Jensen before taking the set at 9-8 with a 10-5 tiebreaker final. Meanwhile, five of the singles matches were won handily by TAMUK while Romanovskaia had to claim a 7-5 final in the second set at No. 1 singles to cap the 9-0 final.
New Mexico State sits at 4-10 on the year and is currently in the midst of a five-match skid, having dropped decisions to Wyoming, Colorado, UT-Arlington, BYU and UTSA. The Aggies' last match wins came against Tarleton State (6-1) and New Mexico Military Institute (7-0) back on February 24.
NMSU is led by Vanessa Valdez and Rebecca Keijzerwaard as the two have split time as the No. 1 and No. 2 singles. Valdez is 0-10 the top singles matchup but 2-0 at No. 2, while Keijzerwaard is 1-8 at No. 2 and 2-2 at No. 1.
The Aggies have used 14 different doubles combinations between duals and tournaments, with Lindsay Harlas and Yadira Rubio owning a 4-8 record in duals as the No. 1 team.
Tarleton State owns a 5-4 mark after securing two wins in the past week over Slippery Rock and Edinboro.
The TexAnns will use the one-two punch of Neekita Sud and Alicia Barbaroux in singles play as Barbaroux is 6-2 as the top singles matchup, while Sud is 7-2 as the No. 2.
Barbaroux will team up with Sherine Salem at the No. 1 doubles as the pair owns an 8-1 mark, while Sud will pair off with Shelby Filingame at No. 2 with an overall record of 7-2.
Newman sits at 10-4 on the year but all four losses have come in the last six matches as the Jets have fallen to Lewis, Washburn, Arkansas-Fort Smith and Northwest Missouri State.
NU has rotated through six individuals at the top three singles spots with Vlada Litvinova and Liza Gerasimova having seen the most action between the three at 7-6 and 6-7, respectively.
The Jets have sent out 12 separate doubles teams with the duo of Litvinova and Kateryna Stoianova owning the best mark at 10-1, including 10-0 as the No. 2 combo.
North Central Texas has completed only seven matches so far this year for a 4-3 mark as a majority of the schedule has been postponed due to inclement weather. The Lions dropped contests to Seward County CC, Tyler JC and Seminole State College at the beginning of the month while taking an 8-1 decision over Southwestern College in the same span.
The match against NMSU is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. on Wednesday at the Javelina Tennis Courts.
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