No. 15 Texas A&M Upsets No. 10 Duke, 4-3

Saturday, February 11

Rocky Hill, Conn.

5:30 PM

Texas A&M

Duke

Photo by: Texas A&M Athletics

Feb 11, 2017 | Women's Tennis

Box Score (A&M 4, Duke 3)

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

ROCKY HILL, Conn. – No. 15 Texas A&M dropped the doubles point against 10^th-ranked Duke but rallied in singles for a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the Blue Devils today in a consolation match at the ITA National Women's Team Indoor Championship at the Tennis & Fitness Center of Rocky Hill.

Junior Eva Paalma clinched the Aggies' first-ever victory in the all-time series against the Blue Devils, giving Texas A&M its first and only lead with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 triumph over Rebecca Smaller at Court 6 in the last match standing.

With the win, the Aggies snap a two-match losing skid to improve to 6-2. Duke, which won the prestigious tournament in 2014 and had not lost consecutive matches since March 29 and April 2, 2015, falls to 4-2.

"It was a great win for the Aggies," Texas A&M head coach Mark Weaver said. "Coming off of two tough losses against very good teams, it was nice that we were able to pull out a very well-played match by both teams. Duke has been one of the best programs for a very long time, and to beat them indoors even adds to the significance of the win.

"It was no doubt a team effort, and there were lots of heroes today. I thought we handle the difficult situations about as well as we could for such a big match against a great team and at a national event. Our composure was very impressive in the big points, especially when we had he opportunities when the matches were on the line to close them out."

Texas A&M, which began the season by winning the doubles point in each of the first five matches, dropped the point for the third consecutive time, but this would be the first match the Aggies were able to come back to get the win after falling behind, 1-0.

Samantha Harris and Smaller won the first five games against A&M's Tina Bokhua and Macarena Olivares en route to a 6-1 victory at No. 3. The Duke duo of Chalena Scholl and Alyssa Smith had jumped out to a 5-1 advantage against Paalma and Domenica Gonzalez at the No. 2 court and clinched the point with a 6-2 victory.

Play was stopped at the No. 1 court, where a battle of top 25-ranked teams was taking place. The match between A&M's 16^th-ranked Rutuja Bhosale and Rachel Pierson and Duke's 25^th-ranked duo of Meible Chi and Kaitlyn McCarthy was knotted at 4-4 when the doubles point was determined, and the match was abandoned.

Chi, who at No. 21 is Duke's highest ranked singles player, put the Blue Devils up, 2-0, to start singles play, winning six consecutive games during a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Bokhua at the No. 3 line.

Bhosale then put the Aggies on the scoreboard and within 2-1 as she posted the third highest ranked win of her collegiate career and the highest since 2015 with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over 37^th-ranked Scholl at No. 2.

Gonzalez would even the score at 2-2. The sophomore pulled away from a 3-3 tie to win her opening set, 6-3, over Smith at the No. 5 line. The second set turned into a back-and forth affair with both players struggling to hold serve. There were a combined nine service breaks with Gonzalez breaking Smith to knot the set at 6-6 to force a tiebreaker. Gonzalez went up, 4-3, in the tiebreaker and never trailed the remainder of the contest, winning, 7-5, to close out tiebreaker and secure the straight-set victory.

Olivares then dropped a hard-fought battle against 125^th-ranked McCarthy at No. 4 as Duke regained the lead at 3-2. Olivares went up a break at 6-5 in the opening set, but McCarthy broke back to force a tiebreaker. Olivares fought off one set point to even the tiebreaker at 6-6. The Aggie then took a 7-6 lead before McCarthy reeled off three unanswered points to win, 9-7.

Olivares overcame a 4-1 deficit in the second set and tied the frame at 5-5 before McCarthy won the next two games to complete the 7-5 win that put the Blue Devils back in the lead.

The remaining two matches would split sets and be determined in a decisive third set. Pierson, ranked 71^st, had jumped out to a 5-0 lead and went on to cruise to a 6-1 first-set win over Harris at the No. 1 line. It was Harris who pulled away to win the second set, 6-3, to force a third set. Pierson won the first four games of the final set, but Harris managed to get within 5-4 before Pierson closed out the 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory that tied the team score at 3-3.

All eyes then turned to Court 6. Paalma had broken away from a 4-4 tie to win the first set, 6-4. Smaller had built a 5-3 lead in the second set and went on to hold off Paalma to win, 6-4, to force the pivotal third set.

The final frame was tied at 1-1 before Paalma shut down Smaller, winning five consecutive games to win, 6-1, to clinch the Aggies' first-ever win in seven all-time meetings against the perennial powerhouse Blue Devils.

Texas A&M (6-2) concludes the tournament Sunday against No. 13 Michigan. First serve is at 6:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. CT) at the Tennis & Fitness Center of Rocky Hill.

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

#15 Texas A&M 4, #10 Duke 3
Tennis and Fitness Center of Rocky Hill
Rocky Hill, Connecticut
ITA National Team Indoor Championship
Consolation

Singles
1. #71 Rachel Pierson (A&M) def. Samantha Harris (DU), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4
2. Rutuja Bhosale (A&M) def. #37 Chalena Scholl (DU), 6-2, 6-2
3. #21 Meible Chi (DU) def. Tina Bokhua (A&M), 6-3, 6-1
4. #125 Kaitlyn McCarthy (DU) def. Macarena Olivares (A&M), 7-6 (7), 7-5
5. Dominica Gonzalez (A&M) def. Alyssa Smith (DU), 6-3, 7-6 (5)
6. Eva Paalma (A&M) def. Rebecca Smaller (DU), 6-4, 4-6, 6-1

Doubles
1. #16 Bhosale/Pierson (A&M) vs. #25 Chi/McCarthy (DU), 4-4 unfinished
2. Scholl/Smith (DU) def. Gonzalez/Paalma (A&M), 6-2
3. Harris/Smaller (DU) def. Bokhua/Olivares (A&M), 6-1

Match Notes:
Duke 4-2; National ranking #10
Texas A&M 6-2; National ranking #15

Order of finish: Doubles (3, 2); Singles (3, 2, 5, 4, 1, 6)

Pronunciations
Rutuja Bhosale                       rue-too-jah BO-slay
Tina Bokhua                           BO-kwah
Saska Gavrilovska                  SAUSH-ka gav-ril-ohv-ska
Stefania Hristov                     steff-on-ya RIS-tov
Eva Paalma                             A-va palma