ARLINGTON, Texas – In a match full of drama that went down to the final point, come-from-behind triumphs by junior Maya Donkor (McLean, Va.) in the No. 1 flight and freshman Manuela Turolo (Cividale del Friuli, Italty) at No. 6 provided the clinching points as the No. 74 Texas A&M-Kingsville women's tennis team outfought the No. 25 Midwestern State Mustangs, 4-3, in the first round of the Lone Star Conference Tournament on Thursday afternoon at the Arlington Tennis Center in Arlington, Texas.
This victory propels the Javelinas into the LSC Tournament semifinals, where they'll meet the No. 9 Cameron Aggies on Friday.
The Javelinas raced out of the gate, taking an early lead in all three doubles matches and after taking a 2-1 leadin the third flight, Turolo and sophomore Alessa Maier (Hechingen, Germany) never relinquished their lead to take a 6-3 decision.
While MSU drew level by grabbing the No. 2 contest, Donkor and sophomore Raina Zaffar (Guwahati, India) refused to let the No. 1 flight slip away. After the Mustangs evened the score at 6-6, the match went to a tiebreaker that included 10 ties, the last one being at 11-11, but Zaffar and Donkor took the next two rallies from there to ensure the day's first point went to the Blue and Gold.
Once singles play began, the Mustangs seized the initiative, winning the first set on five of six courts and taking the No. 3 and No. 4 matches in straight sets to move ahead. The other four matches all required a third set and Maier provided TAMUK with its second point by notching a 7-6, 2-6, 6-2 win in the second flight. When the Mustangs responded with a victory at No. 5, it was up to Donkor and Turolo to complete the comeback.
Donkor dropped the first set, 6-1, and faced a 4-3 deficit late in the second, but she battled back to collect the final three games of the frame and force a third set. That final stanza came down to a tiebreaker and Donkor dominated. She won all seven points to secure a 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 final and even the match at three apiece.
Turolo also had to shake off a first set defeat and erase second set deficit, but she accomplished that by taking the final two games to make the score 7-6 and send her match to a third set as well. Turolo never trailed in that frame and the clincher came on her second match point, sending the Javelinas on to round two.
The LSC Tournament semifinals will be played on Saturday morning starting at 9:30 a.m. and the Javelinas will be pitted against the No. 9 Cameron Aggies. To keep up with Javelina tennis throughout the season, follow @JavelinaTennis on Twitter and Instagram, like the Javelina Sports Facebook page, subscribe to the Javelina Athletics YouTube channel and visit Javelinaathletics.com.
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