KINGSVILLE, Texas – The No. 34 Texas A&M-Kingsville women's tennis program looks to rebound from only its second loss in the last nine matches this week with a home contest against No. 37 St. Mary's (TX) to begin the final week of the regular season.
The Javelinas took a 1-1 mark on the road over the weekend behind a 5-2 win over Cameron and a 5-2 loss to No. 35 MSU Texas to move to 10-6 overall, 4-2 in LSC play going into the final weekend of play.
Junior
Valerie Ruiz (San Antonio, Texas) was the lone member of the Blue and Gold to come away without a scratch against the Aggies and Mustangs as she went undefeated in her three matches, 2-0 in singles and 1-0 in doubles.
Ruiz teamed up with freshman
Loren Tristan (Corpus Christi, Texas) in the third tandem against CU and bested Melany Opolz and Pilar Jaurena at 6-1 before she claimed a straight-set win over Opolz in the fifth singles flight at 6-4, 6-3.
The San Antonio native followed up with a three-set win over Juliette Mary in the match against MSU Texas to move her overall mark to 12-2 on the season coupled with a perfect 5-0 mark in conference play.
Classmate
Julia Rauer (Leiselheim, Germany) currently leads the Javelinas with a 14-2 overall record and closed league play with a 5-1 record, while the duo of senior
Phonephathep Philavong (Vientiane, Laos) and junior
Victoria Romanovskaia (Simferopol, Crimea, Russia) improved to 11-3 as a team with a 4-1 record in LSC matches.
St. Mary's ended up as the 37th-ranked team in the country following the ITA Division II Rankings on April 10 and sits on an 11-6 record in the dual season.
Four different Rattlers own at least 10 wins in 2019 with Ashley Penshorn topping the group with a 13-3 record. She is followed by Ally Maciel at 12-3 and Alex Corder at 12-4, while Hannah Petersen rounds out the quartet with a 10-6 mark.
Penshorn and Petersen have also teamed up as the go-to tandem in the StMU lineup with an 11-6 record, just ahead of the tandem of Isabelle Bergman and Rani Goodland at 9-5.
First serve for the matchup between TAMUK and StMU is set for 3 p.m. at the Javelina Tennis Courts on Wednesday, April 17.
To keep up-to-date with Javelina tennis, follow the program on Facebook at /JavelinaSports or on Twitter @JavelinaTennis
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