KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville women's tennis program begins postseason play on Thursday, May 2, with a match against No. 6 seed Western New Mexico at the Waco Regional Tennis Center in Waco, Texas, for the 2019 Lone Star Conference Championship.
The Javelinas head into the postseason with an 11-7 mark, 4-2 in LSC play, and claimed the third seed in the league tournament following a schedule that featured a 4-3 win over then-No. 15 Tarleton back on March 29. TAMUK bested WNMU in the regular season by a count of 7-0 where only one singles match went to a third set.
On the year in singles play, the Javelinas are led by junior
Julia Rauer (Leiselheim, Germany) and
Valerie Ruiz (San Antonio, Texas) as the two feature a combined 28-6 record in the dual season. Rauer sits at a team-best 16-2, 5-1 in LSC matches, between the fifth and sixth singles flight, while Ruiz is 12-4, 5-0 in the LSC, between the fourth and fifth pairings.
For her efforts on and off the court, Rauer was named to the 2019 LSC All-Academic team for the second consecutive year earlier on Wednesday.
As a team, TAMUK is 63-40 in the singles portion of the match with junior
Victoria Romanovskaia (Simferopol, Crimea, Russia) and sophomore
Laura Montalvo (Cochabamba, Bolivia) both turning in nine wins on the year.
Redshirt senior
Lisa Carvajal (McAllen, Texas) anchored the top spot the majority of the campaign and came away with an 8-8 mark, while classmate
Phonephathep Philavong (Vientiane, Laos) rounds out the lineup with a 5-9 mark but went 4-2 in league play.
In doubles as a team, TAMUK is 33-20 with the nationally ranked duo of Carvajal and newcomer
Maya Donkor (McLean, Va.) sitting at No. 45 with an overall mark of 6-8, 3-2 in the LSC, as the top tandem.
Philavong and Romanovskaia went 5-1 against conference foes to raise their combined record to 12-5, best on the team, while Ruiz and freshman
Loren Tristan (Corpus Christi, Texas) complete the lineup with a 10-6 record.
The Mustangs compiled an 8-14 overall record in the 2019 spring season but managed a 1-5 mark in the LSC with the lone win coming against UT Permian Basin on February 22 in Odessa, Texas, at 5-2.
WNMU managed to take two points away from Cameron at home on March 20, but still suffered a 5-2 defeat, and failed to win a matchup for the remainder of the LSC dual season.
In the matchup against TAMUK on March 24, the Javelina swept through doubles play as Tristan and Montalvo went 6-0 in the third flight against Karina Diaz and Julia Terrazas, followed by a 6-1 win in the second from Philavong and Romanovskaia over Nicole Gonzalez and Carolina Torrico, while Carvajal and Donkor bested Julia Tozzi and Camilla Gomez in the top flight at 6-3.
In singles play, the Blue and Gold took every matchup in straight sets with the exception coming in the second pairing between Philavong and Gomez as the Javelina needed a third set to take the win. Montalvo turned in a flawless 6-0, 6-0, decision over Diaz in the third flight, edging out Rauer and junior
Stephanie Baerman (San Antonio, Texas) in the fifth and sixth flights, respectively.
Baerman defeated Gonzalez by a count of 6-0, 6-1, for the second team point and her feat was matched by Rauer who turned in an identical score against Terrazas for the third.
Heading into the LSC Championship, the Javelinas are ranked No. 27 in the ITA Rankings in a release from the organization on Wednesday. Carvajal and Donkor, meanwhile, maintained a spot in the national doubles rankings at No. 45 ahead of the championship.
The ITA rankings can be seen at the following links:
TEAM |
DOUBLES
The matchup between TAMUK and WNMU is set for 2 p.m. CT at the Waco Regional Tennis Center on Thursday, May 2.
To keep up-to-date with Javelina tennis, follow the program on Facebook at /JavelinaSports or on Twitter @JavelinaTennis
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