DENVER – The Texas A&M-Kingsville women's tennis program fell in the South Central Regional matchup to MSU Denver on Saturday at the Regency Athletic Complex to open the Rocky Mountain road trip for the spring season.

"I believed we played well," said head coach Autumn Wollenzien. "It was a tough match and we had opportunities, but MSU Denver pulled out some good matches. We will continue to improve."

The Javelinas (2-2) dropped the doubles point to the Roadrunners (5-1) before splitting the singles portion of play to close out the match.

Junior Laura Montalvo (Cochabamba, Bolivia) and senior Valerie Ruiz (San Antonio, Texas) were the two responsible for avoiding the clean sweep in doubles play as they took down Gala Castello and Kayla Myburgh in the third tandem at 6-4.

Ruiz kept her momentum rolling into her matchup in the third singles flight as she evened the team score at 1-1 with a near-flawless showing against Helena Steenberg in straight sets at 6-1, 6-0. MSU Denver regained the lead shortly after when Tabitha Porter returned the favor in the second flight with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Montalvo.

The Roadrunners tacked on the third team point in the fourth matchup as Castello went 6-4, 6-0 over sophomore Maya Donkor (McLean, Va.) in straight sets. The hosts officially ended up with the team win in the top flight after Brooklyn Ross downed senior Victoria Romanovskaia (Simferopol, Crimea, Russia) in a hard-fought matchup at 6-3, 6-4 for a 4-1 score.

Freshman Franka Sindicic (Zagreb, Croatia) took home her first win in the Blue and Gold as she clinched the first set at 6-3 over Myburgh in the fifth flight, and held on in the second set at 7-5 to secure the point. Senior Stephanie Baerman (San Antonio, Texas) closed out the match with a back-and-forth battle with Mackenzie Hotan in the sixth pairing.

Baerman edged out Hotan in the first set, 7-5, and needed the super tiebreaker in the second set to take the point at 7-6.

The Javelinas close their road trip to the Centennial State on Sunday, March 1, with a matchup against CSU-Pueblo starting at 11 a.m. CT.

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

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