Box Score PLANO, Texas – Maintaining the momentum from the win just two days' prior, the Texas A&M-Kingsville women's tennis program came away with a convincing 4-2 win on Sunday at the Collins College Courts over Harding to close the first weekend of play with a perfect record.

"Today's match was an early test," said head coach Autumn Williams, "and I felt the ladies passed with flying color. Harding is a good program and our team played with a lot of great energy, especially in doubles.

"They took that momentum into the singles play and we were able to get it done today."

The Javelinas (2-0) opened the doubles portion of competition with a thorough 6-1 win in the third matchup as the tandem of junior Valerie Ruiz (San Antonio, Texas) and newcomer Loren Tristan (Corpus Christi, Texas) bested the Bisons (3-1) matchup of Emily Carpenter and Allison Carpenter.

TAMUK followed that up with a 6-2 win in the top doubles flight with freshman Maya Donkor (McLean, Va.) and sophomore Laura Montalvo (Cochabamba, Bolivia) taking the decision over Rylee Cox and Lindy Carpenter to secure the first point for the Blue and Gold.

The duo of senior Phonephathep Philavong (Vientiane, Laos) and junior Victoria Romanovskaia (Simferopol, Crimea, Russia) also took a win in the second doubles flight at 6-3 over Arisa Takanashi and Hana Folse.

Ruiz kept the run going with a straight-set win over Allison Carpenter in the fourth singles matchup at 6-2, 6-2, before Harding secured its first point with a win in the top singles flight at 6-4, 6-1, with Cox prevailing over Romanovskaia.

Junior Julia Rauer (Leiselheim, Germany) added another TAMUK point at the fifth singles flight with a 6-2, 6-3, straight-set win over Emily Carpenter, while the Bisons stayed close behind with a win in the sixth singles spot as Lindy Carpenter took a three-set win over Tristan at 6-3, 2-6, 10-8.

Montalvo turned out to be the final say in the match as her thrilling back-and-forth with Folse stretched out to three sets. The Javelina took the first set in dominating fashion at 6-1 before the Bison secured the second set at 6-3. The decisive third set favored the Bolivian, however, as Montalvo took a 10-8 final in the third set to put the Blue and Gold over the top.

The final matchup at the second singles flight between Philavong and Takanashi went unfinished as the Javelinas secured the team win.

PDF results available here.

TAMUK will open up the home portion of the spring schedule this week with a matchup against Division-I foe UTRGV on Friday, February 8, starting at 2 p.m. CT at the Javelina Tennis Courts.

To keep up-to-date with Javelina tennis, follow the program on Facebook at /JavelinaSports or on Twitter @JavelinaTennis

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