SILVER CITY, N.M. – The Texas A&M-Kingsville women's tennis program extended its unbeaten streak to five matches on Thursday with a 4-3 decision against Western New Mexico at the WNMU Tennis Courts in Lone Star Conference action.
"It was ugly," said head coach Autumn Wollenzien, "but we were able to make it happen. I'm glad we showed some resilience today."
The Javelinas (8-7, 5-3 LSC) dropped the doubles point to the Mustangs (5-14, 1-6 LSC), but came back in singles play to clinch four of the six flights for the win.
Nicold Gonzalez and Kajsa Gedlitschka took the first matchup for the hosts at 6-4 over freshmen Milou ter Morsche (Goor, Netherlands) and Jana Knaab (Stuttgart, Germany) in the third tandem ahead of Julia Tozzi and Camila Gomez's 6-4 win over sophomore Maya Donkor (McLean, Va.) and junior Laura Montalvo (Cochabamba, Bolivia) in the top pairing.
The Javelinas had the second duo of newcomers Alessa Maier (Hechingen, Germany) and Raina Zaffar (Guwahati, India) go to a set tiebreaker against Massiel Paredes and Julia Terrazas, but the Mustang pair came out ahead in the tiebreaker at 6-4 for a 7-6 final in the flight.
Singles play featured a four-point run from the visitors starting with ter Morsche in the fourth matchup against Terrazas. The Javelina claimed the first set at 6-0 and just missed out on the perfect showing with a 6-1 decision in the second.
The second pairing between Montalvo and Gomez featured another straight-set victory for TAMUK as Montalvo claimed a 6-3 win in set one followed by a 6-1 triumph in set two. Maier put the Blue and Gold on the brink with the third win in consecutive sets in the third flight with a 7-5 win in the first set and a 6-1 win in the clinching set.
Donkor, the reigning LSC Player of the Week, put the Javelinas over the top with a straight-set win in the top flight over Tozzi that required a tiebreaker in the second set. Donkor breezed past Tozzi in the first set at 6-0 and used a 6-3 tiebreaking win in the second set for a 7-6 final, securing the team win for TAMUK.
The final two singles pairings went in favor of WNMU as Gonzalez won out over freshman Noemi Sante (Düsseldorf, Germany) in the sixth flight at 6-3 and 7-6 with a 7-5 win in the second-set tiebreaker. Paredes added a three-set win over Knaab in the fifth flight as Knaab took the first set at 6-3.
Paredes came back in set two at 6-4 and used a 10-7 finish in the decisive set for the point.
The Javelinas close out the regular season on the road on Saturday, April 24, against UT Tyler starting at 12 p.m. CT.
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