KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M University-Kingsville women's tennis program will pay a visit north to Colorado over the next few days for three matches against two Division-II opponents and one Division-III opponent.
The Javelinas will first make a stop in Colorado Springs, Colo., to tackle Colorado College at the Burghart Tennis Courts, followed by a stop in the Mile High City for a match against RMAC opponent Metro State at The Regency Athletic Complex, and will wrap up the trip in Pueblo, Colo., at the Pueblo City Park Tennis Complex to square off with CSU-Pueblo.
TAMUK has split its last four matches heading into the Colorado road trip, taking 5-4 wins over No. 12 Midwestern State and Arkansas-Fort Smith before dropping 8-1 decisions to St. Edward's and Tampa.
In the matchup against Tampa, the Javelinas got strong outings from four of the six singles matches, but couldn't find the winning combination en route to the loss.
Stephanie Baerman and
Laura Montalvo battled back from a 7-2 deficit in the No. 3 doubles to close within one point at 7-6, but the Tampa duo of Lilley Nice and Emily Hewland held on for the 8-6 final.
Baerman rebounded in her No. 6 singles match against Amanda Baxter with a straight set win at 7-5, 6-4, but Montalvo couldn't duplicate the effort against Nice in the No. 4 singles match as the Spartan won out in three sets at 3-6, 6-3 and 6-2.
Tampa won in straight sets at the Nos. 2 and 3 singles matches, despite the latter between
Julia Rauer and Vanina Iordanova lasting well over two hours as Rauer fought through long rallies en route to the loss at 7-5, 6-2.
Valerie Ruiz forced a third set in the No. 5 singles match with a 6-4 win in the second, but Corbin Dorsey ended the comeback attempt with a 6-1 win in the third.
Victoria Romanovskaia was locked in a back-and-forth affair with Caroline Rozo in the No. 1 singles match as the Spartan took the first set at 6-4 before the Javelina fought back with a 6-3 win in the second.
The third set eventually went to tiebreaker, as neither side held the upper hand, before Rozo eventually won out at 7-6 to finalize the team score at 8-1.
Colorado College is currently 3-6 on the year with its only win in its last five matches coming as a 7-2 decision over Colorado Christian, but does own a pair of wins over CSU-Pueblo at 5-2 and 5-1.
Allie Burak has anchored the top spot of the rotation with a 5-4 record in duals as the No. 1 singles matchup. The Tigers have shuffled the Nos. 3 through 6 singles matchups, while Jenna McDonald owns a 3-6 record as the No. 2 singles matchup in nine duals.
Burak and McDonald have teamed up as the No. 1 doubles matchup as well, owning a 6-3 record in duals so far on the year.
Metro State also bested Colorado Christian in its most recent match and the Roadrunners currently own a 7-6 record on the year with a 1-1Â record against Lone Star Conference foes Tarleton State (W, 5-4) and Cameron (L, 2-5).
In the most recent match against CCU, Metro State took a 9-0 sweep over the Cougars behind a dominating performance at all three doubles matchups and strong performances across the board in the singles matchups.
Tabitha Porter and Alex Pessoa took an 8-1 decision at No. 1 doubles to start the rally, followed by a convincing 6-1, 6-0 straight-set win for Pessoa at No. 1 singles, and a 6-0, 6-0 win for Porter at No. 2 singles.
The remaining two doubles matchups ended at 8-1 in favor of the Roadrunners, while the remaining four singles matchups were straight-set wins.
CSU-Pueblo is looking for its first win of the year still, sitting at 0-11 with only one matchup coming down to the wire as the Thunderwolves fell 5-4 to Dixie State back in October.
More recently, CSU-Pueblo fell 9-0 to Cameron on March 2, before dropping a 7-2 decision to Tarleton State and a 5-1 decision to Southeastern Oklahoma on March 3.
The Javelinas will first take on Colorado College on March 11, starting at 2 p.m. CT.
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