Texas A&M
Arkansas
No. 11 Texas A&M Defeats No. 46 Arkansas, 5-2
Apr 05, 2015 | Women's Tennis
"Once again I was delighted with our attitude and high-quality play,” Texas A&M head coach Howard Joffe said. “The 5-2 score line likely belies just how aggressive and well we played. Arkansas is a good team, which also had a lot to do with us dropping two matches.”
It is the Aggies' fourth consecutive victory and their ninth in the last 10 matches as they improve to 12-4 overall, including 9-2 in SEC matches only. Arkansas, playing its home finale, falls to 14-12 overall and 3-8 in SEC play.
A&M won the doubles point for the 12th time in 15 matches – doubles was not played in the Aggies' victory against Auburn earlier this season – to jump out to a 1-0 lead. A&M's 56th-ranked tandem of Eva Paalma and Rachel Pierson had no problem with Shannon Hudson and Yuliya Lysa, defeating the Arkansas duo, 8-0, at the No. 1 line to register their fifth consecutive win.
A&M's Rutuja Bhosale and Saska Gavrilovska clinched the point for the Aggies, winning the last four games to close out an 8-3 victory over Flavia Araujo and Sasha Shkorupeieva at the No. 2 line as Texas A&M took the 1-0 lead.
Sixteenth-ranked Ines Deheza and Stefania Hristov trailed Arkansas' Makenzie Craft and Mia Jurasic by only a game at 6-5 when play was stopped and the match went unfinished.
Gavrilovska, ranked 77th in singles, quickly gave Texas A&M a 2-0 lead at the start of singles, cruising to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Shkorupeieva at the No. 4 line. It marked the fourth consecutive win for the sophomore from Serbia.
Junior Anna Mamalat pulled away for a 6-3, 6-4 win against Araujo at No. 6, and the Aggies had quickly built a 3-0 lead.
Deheza gave A&M a 4-0 lead, clinching the winning point with a 6-3, 7-6 (2) win at the No. 3 line.
Pierson and Bhosale had split sets at the top of the lineup, but with the overall team winner already determined, a 10-point super tiebreaker was played for the third set. Arkansas pulled away to win the tiebreaker on both courts to capture the Razorbacks' two points.
Bhosale, ranked 57th in singles, had won her first set, 6-1, against Hudson at the No. 2 line, but Hudson pulled away for a 2-2 second-set tie to win 6-4 and force a third set. Hudson then held on for a 10-7 victory in the super tiebreaker, putting the Razorbacks on the scoreboard and snapping Bhosale's nine-match win streak.
Pierson, ranked 32nd in the nation, had dropped her opening set, 6-4 against Lysa at the No. 1 line, but Pierson took the second set 6-2. Lysa, however, pulled out an 11-9 super tiebreaker win for the third set to make the score, 4-2.
Paalma, A&M's only freshman, had won her first set, 6-0, against Jurasic at the No. 5 line but dropped the second set, 7-5. Because they had already begun the third set when A&M clinched the victory, they played out the final set, with Paalma pulling away for a 6-4 win to close out the Aggies' 5-2 victory.
"In doubles, Pierson and Paalma played as close to flawless as a team can,” Joffe said. “Saska Gavrilovska's match was likely the pick of the singles matches. She was superb.”
A&M concludes a three-match road swing at No. 7 Baylor on Wednesday before closing out its regular-season home slate this weekend, hosting No. 8 Vanderbilt and No. 20 Kentucky, Friday and Sunday, respectively, at the Mitchell Tennis Center. First serve against the Bears is slated for 5 p.m. at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco.
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.
#11 Texas A&M 5, #46 Arkansas 2
Singles – Order of finish: 4, 6, 3, 2, 1, 5
1. Yuliya Lysa (ARK) def. #32 Rachel Pierson (A&M), 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (9)
2. Shannon Hudson (ARK) def. #57 Rutuja Bhosale (A&M), 1-6, 6-4, 1-0 (7)
3. Ines Deheza (A&M) def. Makenzie Craft (ARK), 6-3, 7-6
4. #77 Saska Gavrilovska (A&M) def. Sasha Shkorupeieva (ARK), 6-1, 6-1
5. Eva Paalma (A&M) def. Mia Jurasic (ARK), 6-0, 5-7, 6-4
6. Anna Mamalat (A&M) def. Flavia Araujo (ARK), 6-3, 6-4
Doubles – Order of finish: 1, 3
1. #56 Paalma/Pierson (A&M) def. Hudson/Lysa (ARK), 8-0
2. #16 Deheza/Stefania Hristov (A&M) vs. Craft/Jurasic (ARK), 5-6 unfinished
3. #80 Bhosale/Gavrilovska (A&M) def. Araujo/Shkorupeieva (ARK), 8-3
Team records:
Texas A&M: 12-4, 9-2 SEC
Arkansas: 14-12, 3-8 SEC
Players Mentioned
