Box Score KINGSVILLE, Texas – The No. 31 Texas A&M-Kingsville women's tennis program edged out No. 35 St. Mary's (TX) on Wednesday at the Javelina Tennis Courts, as junior Victoria Romanovskaia (Simferopol, Crimea, Russia) secured a 4-3 decision for the hosts following a thrilling battle at the fourth singles flight.

"I knew it was going to be a tough match," said head coach Autumn Williams, "and that we were going to have to fight hard. These ladies brought their hearts and dug in and came away with a victory.

"I'm very proud of the way we played doubles and cheered each other on in singles."

The Javelinas (11-6) secured the crucial doubles point behind the tandem of freshman Loren Tristan (Corpus Christi, Texas) and junior Valerie Ruiz (San Antonio, Texas), before splitting the singles lineup with the Rattlers (11-7) en route to the decision.

Ruiz and Tristan took the doubles point for TAMUK behind a 6-2 final against Ashley Penshorn and Rani Goodland, following in the footsteps of the 46th-ranked duo of redshirt senior Lisa Carvajal (McAllen, Texas) and newcomer Maya Donkor (McLean, Va.) who finished with a 6-1 win over Alex Corder and Hannah Petersen at the top flight.

The singles lineup favored StMU in every odd matchup.  Ally Maciel took the top flight in straight sets over senior Phonephathep Philavong (Vientiane, Laos), Goodland grabbed the third matchup over sophomore Laura Montalvo (Cochabamba, Bolivia) in two sets, and Penshorn took a straight-set victory over Ruiz in the fifth pairing.

TAMUK took every even matchup for the win, however, as junior Julia Rauer (Leiselheim, Germany) started the scoring with a straight-set win over Alice Thane at 6-1, 6-2, in the sixth pairing.

Carvajal added a hard-fought, three-set win over Petersen in the second flight as the Rattler took the first set, 6-4, before the Javelina eked out the final two at 6-1 and 6-1.

Romanovskaia became the hero yet again as she bested Isabelle Bergman in the first set at 7-6 before battling back from a 5-4 deficit in the second set to take the win at 7-5.

The Javelinas close the regular season for 2019 at home on April 20 with a makeup match against UTRGV starting at 2 p.m. 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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