Texas A&M
UT Arlington
Texas A&M Defeats UTA, 5-2
Feb 12, 2015 | Women's Tennis
The Aggies won two of the three doubles matches to take the early lead. Stefania Hristov and Eva Paalma won five consecutive games to close out a 6-1 victory over Jessica Birowski and Christine Foote at the No. 3 line. UTA picked up a 6-4 win at No. 1 as Angeles de los Rios and Elizabeth Thoms pulled away for a 6-4 victory against 37th-ranked Ines Deheza and Rachel Pierson. As soon as UTA finished off the upset at the No. 1 court, A&M's Rutuja Bhosale and Saska Gavrilovska capped a 6-3 victory against Astrid Gehre and Augustina Serio at No. 2 to clinch the point.
Things got a little dicey at the start of singles as UTA won first sets at the top two lines as well as at No. 5. In addition, the Mavericks held a 5-4 advantage at No. 3 and a comfortable 5-2 lead at No. 6. The Aggies, however, manage to get back on the winning track on three of those five courts and notched straight-set wins at Nos. 3, 4 and 5 to get the victory.
Deheza gave the Aggies a 2-0 lead after disposing of Ekaterina Tugarinova, 6-4, 6-2, at No. 4. Pierson, ranked No. 64 in singles, had jumped out to a 4-0 first-set lead against de los Rios at No. 3, but the Maverick fought back to take a 5-4 advantage. Pierson, however, got her game back and reeled off six consecutive games to finish off a 7-5 first-set win and jump out to a 3-0 lead in the second set. Pierson went on to win the second set, 6-2, to put A&M ahead, 3-0.
Anna Mamalat clinched the point for the Aggies after making a clutch comeback against Birowski at No. 6. Mamalat quickly fell behind, 5-2, in the opening set but won four consecutive games to take a 6-5 lead. Birowski tied the set at 6-6 to force a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker was tied at 4-4 before Mamalat won two points to be at set point. Birowski got within 6-5 before Mamalat finished off the set, 7-5. The second set was knotted at 1-1 when Mamalat won five consecutive games to get the 6-1 win and secure the clinching fourth point for the Maroon and White.
Serio scored the Mavericks' first point with a win against Paalma at the No. 5 line. Serio won the first set, 6-4, but Paalma won the second set, 6-3. With the overall team victory already decided, the two played a 10-point tiebreaker for the third set, which was won by Serio, 10-6.
Gavrilovska, ranked No. 67 in singles, came back to win at the No. 1 line after dropping her opening set. Thoms jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first frame en route to a 6-2 win. Thoms also won the first two games of the second set before Gavrilovska turned up her game and won six straight games to win the set and force a third set. The final set was knotted at 4-4 when Gavrilovska won back-to-back games to close out the victory, putting A&M up, 5-1.
UTA got its final point in the last match as Gehre held on to upset 57th-ranked Bhosale, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, at the No. 2 line, handing Bhosale her first singles loss in dual match play.
The Aggies evened their season record at 2-2 and snapped UTA's five-match win streak as the Mavericks dropped to 5-2. A&M also takes a 2-0 lead in the all-time series against the Mavericks.
The Aggies will have another nine days before they return to competition against Abilene Christian on Saturday, Feb. 21 at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The match, a late addition to the schedule, begins at noon and marks A&M's final tune-up before entering Southeastern Conference play at Tennessee on Feb. 27.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Aggie-Womens-Tennis/143874782434654
Texas A&M head Coach Howard Joffe quotes:
On his thoughts on the match...
“Firstly I have to say that UT Arlington is an awful tough team, and certainly they came very motivated and played real hard. We worked hard the last 10 days, and my hope was that we would really dust them pretty badly, and yet we ended up in a dogfight for the most part. In a way I think that it put up a mirror to some of the immaturity on our team, so in a way hopefully it will grab their attention a little bit. That said, again, UT Arlington is a good team. I know they played 4-3 with Missouri last week. They've got some good South American players and a Russian kid, and so I was very pleased to see us fight back in a lot of those singles matches. Definitely some positives, but we've got a rather immature team and a very talented team that needs to sort of come together if they are going to be consistent.”
On the comeback in the second set in several matches...
“Maybe this is just up to a coach's interpretation, but when I talk of the immaturity of the group, I think UTA only grabbed their attention once they were a set down and in some cases a set down and a break down and then suddenly the engine starting moving, and that will be just enough to get you beat against any team that is UT Arlington's level or better.”
On things that stood out today...
“The one thing that I would say is that we have been practicing quite a bit in doubles, and I thought the doubles we actually played quite well. All three teams, even the team that lost at No. 1, the doubles strategy is getting better. I thought Rachel Pierson played quite well in the singles match. She was the first match to win, so that was a good sign. On the (courts on the) other side, I heard Ines (Deheza). I didn't see a lot of Ines, but she obviously played with a ton of passion, and that is absolutely what we need from her.”
On what to work on over the next nine days before the next match...
“Just keep on working hard. The thing at this moment, I suppose you could say there is a bit of Jekyll and Hyde. Seven days ago we're playing the No. 1 team in the country to a standstill. Today we are in all sorts of trouble against an unranked team, so we've definitely got the ability, but it is definitely on me to get the rudder of the ship going in the right direction, so the next 10 days will be more practice and more just trying to get the team to understand that details count.”
#18 Texas A&M 5, UT Arlington 2
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
College Station, Texas
February 12, 2015
Singles
1. #67 Saska Gavrilovska (TAMU) def. Elizabeth Thoms (UTA), 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
2. Astrid Gehre (UTA) def. #57 Rutuja Bhosale (TAMU), 6-4, 2-6, 7-5
3. #64 Rachel Pierson (TAMU) def. Angeles de los Rios (UTA), 7-5, 6-2
4. Ines Deheza (TAMU) def. Ekaterina Tugarinova (UTA), 6-4, 6-2
5. Augustina Serio (UTA) def. Eva Paalma (TAMU), 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-6)
6. Anna Mamalat (TAMU) def. Jessica Birowski (UTA), 7-6 (5), 6-1
Doubles (TAMU wins the point)
1. De los Rios/Thoms (UTA) def. #30 Deheza/Pierson (TAMU), 6-4
2. Bhosale/Gavrilovska (TAMU) def. Gehre/Serio (UTA), 6-3
3. Stefania Hristov/Paalma (TAMU) def. Birowski/Christine Foote (UTA), 6-1
Order of finish
Doubles: 3, 1, 2
Singles: 4, 3, 6*, 5, 1, 2
*clinched match
Team records
Texas A&M: 2-2
UT Arlington: 5-2
Players Mentioned
