KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville women's tennis program returns to action this week with the Lone Star Conference opener against St. Mary's on Wednesday, March 31.
First serve is set for 2 p.m. CT at the Javelina Tennis Courts against the Rattlers.
The Javelinas missed their last three matches due to COVID protocol and will face the Rattlers for their league opener this week. TAMUK owns a 3-4 mark on the year with its last match on March 14 against Air Force in San Antonio at a neutral site, but defeated Southwestern and Trinity in the two matches before that.
Junior Laura Montalvo (Cochabamba, Bolivia) owns the best record for the Blue and Gold in singles play as she is 5-1 on the year, including a flawless 5-0 mark at the third singles flight. She owns a pair of Division I wins on the year as she bested Ana Platisa from UTRGV in three sets on February 27 and added a straight-set sweep of Shailla Aldo from the AFA on March 15.
Right behind Montalvo is sophomore Maya Donkor (McLean, Va.) with a 3-2 mark overall, including a 3-1 record at the second singles spot. Donkor turned in a three-set win over the Vaqueros' Kristyna Mamicova on February 27 and was locked in a bitter struggle with the Falcons' Alex Kuo with the first set going in favor of Kuo before Donkor had the lead in the second set ahead of the stoppage.
In doubles action, Montalvo and Donkor have teamed up as the top pairing for head coach Autumn Wollenzien and have turned in a 3-3 mark through six matches. The duo have won three of their last four matches and missed out on a Division I win against Meredith Jones and Ksenia Vasilyev from the AFA on March 15 but fell in a hard-fought matchup at 6-4.
The newcomer pairing of Jana Knaab (Stuttgart, Germany) and Milou ter Morsche (Goor, Netherlands) have picked up two wins as the third tandem, both in their last two matches. Knaab has anchored the sixth spot in singles play while ter Morsche picked up a pair of singles wins in the fourth spot.
Freshman Alessa Maier (Hechingen, Germany) owns top billing in singles play and added two wins on the year so far, while classmate Raina Zaffar (Guwahati, India) has picked up three singles wins on the season, including two in the last three matches as the fourth flight.
St. Mary's owns a 10-3 record on the year so far, including a run of four consecutive wins and a 7-0 sweep of UT Tyler in its LSC opener over the weekend. The Rattlers have surrendered only four team points in their last four matches, with identical 9-0 sweeps of McMurry and Hardin-Simmons on March 20 as Trinity was the lone team to record a team point in the 5-4 final on March 25.
Ashley Penshorn and Maria Garcia are the one-two punch at the top of the singles lineup with records of 12-1 and 11-2, respectively. Penshorn has anchored the top spot with her only loss to Central Oklahoma's Adel-Byanu Abidullina back on March 5 as every win has come in straight sets for the Rattler.
Garcia's losses also feature one to UCO and another to AFA's Alex Kuo on March 12, whereas every win for her has also come in consecutive sets.
StMU also rolls out a pair of nine-win competitors in singles play at the three and four spots, with Marina Vigil sitting at 9-4 in the former and Gabi Ioannou owning a 9-2 mark in the latter.
The Rattlers have played round-robin with their doubles teams, as Penshorn and Garcia own a 4-2 mark in the top tandem while no other duo has turned in more than four matches at any doubles flight.
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