Texas A&M
South Carolina
Texas A&M Women?s Tennis defeats No. 26 South Carolina
Mar 06, 2015 | Women's Tennis
COLLEGE STATION – The Texas A&M women's tennis team upset the No. 26 South Carolina Gamecocks 5-2 in front of 196 fans at the George P Mitchell Tennis Center Friday afternoon. The Aggies ran their record to 4-3 overall and 2-1 in SEC action, the Gamecocks fell to 8-4 overall and 1-2 in league play.
“The win today gives us a little bit of confidence,” Texas A&M head coach Howard Joffe said. “The object of the exercise is for the team to just keep getting better throughout the season. The ranking and wins will take care of themselves as we move along this season.”
The home team opened play capturing the crucial doubles point in just over an hour of action, both teams traded blows on all three doubles courts before the Aggies were able to hit the knockout winner on courts one and two. South Carolina took the first doubles match on court three from Megen Cochran and Elixane Lechemia over Saska Gavrilovska and Rutuja Bhosale.
The first doubles win for the home team came from No. 35 Rachel Pierson and Eva Paalma over No. 58 Hadley Berg and Caroline Dailey on the first court. The Aggies top-flight duo broke the Gamecocks twice in the first eight points to stake and early lead and hold on for the 8-5 victory.
With the point in the balance A&M's Ines Deheza and Stefania Hristov fought off match point from Meghan Blevins and Brigit Folland in the tiebreaker. The Aggies held serve twice and broke the Gamecocks to take the match and pivotal doubles point.
“Just in a very practical sense it absolutely was vital to get that doubles point,” Joffe added.” It was the second time in a row it has come down to Ines and Stefania, they won us the doubles point 12-10 in a tiebreaker last week at Georgia. They saved match point and then Stefania was unbelievably tough mentally to win us that point. The doubles point set the stage for us to win the match. The doubles point is a great piece of trickery, it is only one seventh of the outcome of the match, but psychologically it bears much more than that on anyone involved.”
As play shifted to the singles courts, momentum seemed to shift into the Gamecocks favor. The Aggies trailed on four of six courts, but rallied to take four of six first sets. South Carolina knotted the score at one apiece on the first court; No. 121 Lechemia defeated No. 54 Gavrilovska 6-1, 6-4.
Mere minutes later the maroon and white restored its one point cushion through a win from Bhosale over Blevins. The 59th-ranked player took the win 6-4, 6-1 on court four.
As the dominoes continued to fall for the Aggies, No. 40 Pierson defeated No. 124 Dailey on court two. The A&M sophomore won in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 over the sophomore from the Palmetto state to move the score 3-1 in the Aggies favor.
Junior Anna Mamalat clinched the win for A&M 7-6, 6-0 on court six over Cochran. Shortly after Mamalat's win, No. 117 Deheza gave the Aggies point number five on the day defeating reigning SEC Player of the Week Folland on court three. Deheza has won five straight since moving to the four line for the Aggies.
“From the coach's perspective, until Anna clinched the win the decision was very much in doubt,” Joffe said.” I think that in general terms, we have lost a couple matches to very good teams and our team hung in there and got the business done today.”
The final point of the day went to South Carolina as Berg upset No. 113 Hristov on court five in three sets.
The Aggies close out a two-match homestand on Sunday as they play host to No. 2 Florida at 11 a.m. at the Mitchell Tennis Center. Florida has won or tied for 10 SEC regular-season championships since 2000, including four of the last five season titles. A&M, however, has posted two upsets against the formidable Gators in each of the last two years: a 4-3 victory against then-No. 4 Florida in the first SEC meeting in 2013 at the Mitchell Tennis Center, as well as another 4-3 victory against the fourth-ranked Gators in the quarterfinals of the 2014 SEC Tournament in Columbia, Mo.
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 Facebook.com/AggieWomensTennis.
Texas A&M 5, #26 South Carolina 2
Singles competition
1. #121 Elixane Lechemia (SC) def. #54 Saska Gavrilovska (A&M) 6-1, 6-4
2. #40 Rachel Pierson (A&M) def. #124 Caroline Dailey (SC) 6-4, 6-1
3. #117 Ines Deheza (A&M) def. Brigit Folland (SC) 7-5, 6-1
4. #59 Rutuja Bhosale (A&M) def. Meghan Blevins (SC) 6-4, 6-1
5. Hadley Berg (SC) def. #113 Stefania Hristov (A&M) 6-1, 3-6, 6-3
6. Anna Mamalat (A&M) def. Megen Cochran (SC) 7-6 (7-4), 6-0
Doubles competition
1. #35 Rachel Pierson/Eva Paalma (A&M) def. #58 Hadley Berg/Caroline Dailey (SC) 8-5
2. Ines Deheza/Stefania Hristov (A&M) def. Meghan Blevins/Brigit Folland (SC) 8-7 (8-6)
3. Megen Cochran/Elixane Lechemia (SC) def. Saska Gavrilovska/Rutuja Bhosale (A&M) 8-3
Match Notes:
South Carolina 8-4, 1-2; National ranking #26
Texas A&M 4-3, 2-1
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (1,4,2,6,3,5)
A-192
Players Mentioned
