No. 25 Texas A&M Falls to No. 24 Mississippi State, 4-1

Friday, March 31

Starkville, Miss.

3:00 PM

Texas A&M

Mississippi State

Photo by: Sam Craft/Texas A&M Athletics

Mar 31, 2017 | Women's Tennis

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

STARKVILLE, Miss. – No. 25 Texas A&M fell to No. 24 Mississippi State, 4-1, today at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre. The Aggies move to 10-10 overall, including 2-6 in Southeastern Conference matches, while Mississippi State won its fourth match in its last five outings to improve to 12-5, 5-4.

"It was a tough one today, that is for sure," Texas A&M head coach Mark Weaver said. "I have been around college tennis for a very long time, and the doubles point was really a tough one to get over. We played very well in the doubles and actually thought we had won the match. Eva (Paalma) hit a volley winner on match point, but unfortunately her foot touched the net so the point was nullified. It seems to take us a little to recover in the singles, but we did recover and we had a shot once again at the end but couldn't quite get enough of the big points to go our way."

The Aggies dropped a close fight for the doubles point. After Sara Lizariturry and Anastasia Rentouli gave the Bulldogs the early edge with a 6-2 victory over Stefania Hristov and Macarena Olivares at the No. 3 line, A&M's 12^th-ranked duo of Rutuja Bhosale and Rachel Pierson won its fifth consecutive match by defeating 11^th-ranked Jasmine Lee and Lisa Marie Rioux at the No. 1 line. It was the second highest ranked win of the season for the Aggie pair.

The doubles point came down to a battle between the Bulldogs' Jennifer Brown and Khrystyna Vozniak and A&M's Domenica Gonzalez and Paalma at No. 2. After MSU came back to tie the match, 5-5, following Paalma's net infraction, A&M was holding a 40-15 lead in the ensuing game. MSU came back to tie the score, 40-40, and then won the deuce point to go up 6-5. A&M once again built a 40-15 lead in the following game but was unable to close it out as MSU forced another deuce point and went on to win the match, 7-5, to clinch the doubles point for the Bulldogs.

Lizariturry gave MSU a 2-0 lead at the start of singles, defeating Olivares, 6-1, 6-1, at the No. 5 line. Gonzalez then but the Aggies on the scoreboard as she downed Vozniak, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 4. It would be the only point the Aggies would score.

In a back-and-forth affair at the top of the lineup, 32^nd-ranked Lee held off 39^th-ranked Pierson in a third-set tiebreaker. Lee won four consecutive games to close out a 6-2 first-set win, but Pierson raced to a 6-0 second-set win to force a third set. The final frame was tied at 6-all, and Lee pulled away to win the tiebreaker, 7-5, to give the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead.

Brown clinched the winning point and MSU's first-ever victory in the all-time series against Aggies by defeating Tina Bokhua, 7-5, 6-3, at the No. 6 line.

Bhosale, ranked 91 in singles, held a 7-5, 5-3 lead over Rioux at the No. 2 line, and Rentouli held a 7-5, 2-6, 2-0 advantage over A&M's Saska Gavrilovska when the Bulldogs clinched the victory and play was stopped.

"The girls have done a great job of fighting all the way through these tough matches, and I am continued to be encouraged by their fight and determination," Weaver said. "That gives me a lot of confidence that we can make a turn and get these difficult matches to eventually go our way. We will have another good opportunity to do that on Sunday against Ole Miss."

The Aggies conclude a four-match road swing on Sunday as they take on 28^th-ranked Ole Miss. First serve against the Rebels is at 1 p.m. at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center in Oxford.

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

No. 24 Mississippi State 4, No. 25 Texas A&M 1
March 31, 2017 – A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre – Starkville, Miss.

Doubles
1. No. 12 Rutuja Bhosale/Rachel Pierson (A&M) def. No. 11 Jasmine Lee/Lisa Marie Rioux (MSU) 6-3
2. Jennifer Brown/Khrystyna Vozniak (MSU) def. Domenica Gonzalez/Eva Paalma (A&M) 7-5
3. Sara Lizariturry/Anastasia Rentouli (MSU) def. Stefania Hristov/Macarena Olivares (A&M) 6-2

Singles
1. No. 32 Jasmine Lee (MSU) def. No. 39 Rachel Pierson (A&M) 6-2, 0-6, 7-6(5)
2. No. 91 Rutuja Bhosale (A&M) vs. Lisa Marie Rioux (MSU) 7-5, 5-3 unfinished
3. Anastasia Rentouli (MSU) vs. Saska Gavrilovska (A&M) 7-5, 2-6, 2-0 unfinished
4. Domenica Gonzalez (A&M) def. Khrystyna Vozniak (MSU) 6-1, 6-1
5. Sara Lizariturry (MSU) def. Macarena Olivares (A&M) 6-1, 6-1
6. Jennifer Brown (MSU) def. Tina Bokhua (A&M) 7-5, 6-3

Match Notes:
Texas A&M 10-10 (2-6 SEC); National ranking #25
Mississippi State 12-5 (5-4 SEC); National ranking #24
Order of finish: Doubles (3, 1, 2); Singles (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