Match Statistics
San Marcos, Texas – Playing their final home match of the 2011 season, the Texas State women's tennis team defeated UTSA 7-0 in their annual I-35 Maroon vs. Orange rivalry match at the Bobcat Tennis Complex on Sunday afternoon.
“Winning today against an arch rival was more important to me than it was for the players,” said Texas State head coach Tory Plunkett. “We are so young that we have developed a philosophy to go out and play as hard as we can against every school. This was the first time some of them have played against UTSA. However, I remember that it wasn't too long ago that we hadn't won a match against UTSA. So to come back and sweep them today was nice.”
The Bobcats came out and won all three doubles matches for the fourth time overall this season and the first time in a Southland Conference match, since they played at Central Arkansas on March 6.
Gabriela Rojas and Jessica Laing was the first Bobcat doubles tandem to win their match as they defeated Caroline Dedering and Kavya Menon by a score of 8-0 in the No. 2 match. \
Mariana Perez and Bérénice Van Den Bergh clinched the doubles point for the Bobcats when they won the No. 3 match over Katie Ottenbreight and Mariel Mafezzolli by a score of 8-5.
Texas State won its third doubles match when Melissa Hadad and Jessica Kahts defeated Stefanie Peana and Micaela Silva by a score of 8-6 in the No. 1 match.
In singles action, Perez didn't give up a point in her No. 5 match as she defeated Dedering 6-0, 6-0. Van Den Bergh also won her No. 6 match with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Vivian Carrillo in the No. 6 match.
Hadad also was dominant in winning her No. 2 match by a score of 6-2, 6-2 over Silva to clinch the victory.
Kahts also won a hard-fought No. 1 match 6-2, 6-2 over Peana, while it took three sets for Laing to defeat Maffezzolli in the No. 4 match. Laing began the day winning the first set 6-1, but Maffezzolli came back to win a hard-fought second set by a score of 6-4. Laing won the third set in a super tiebreaker as she scored five straight points to win the set by a score of 10-5.
In the final match of the day, Rojas and Menon battled back and forth with long rallies deciding each point in the second set of their No. 3 match after Rojas had won the first set 6-2. With the score tied at 5-5 in the second set, Rojas came back to break serve and held her serve for the final two points and won the set by a score of 7-5 to clinch the victory.
The victory marks the first weekend this season in which Texas State has won both Southland Conference matches.
“This was huge to win for us because it marks the first time that we have swept two matches in a weekend this season,” said Plunkett. :”It says a lot about the players in that we won a tough match against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi yesterday and came back and dominated our match today. They are growing up and it is exciting to see.”
In addition to winning both matches this weekend, it was the third straight SLC win for the Bobcats after they defeated Sam Houston State 4-3 in Huntsville on April 2. The win against UTSA also improves Texas State's overall record to 9-7, and the Bobcats are 5-4 in SLC matches this season.
“After winning our last three matches, obviously we want to end on a high note heading into the SLC Conference Tournament,” said Plunkett. “There is still a lot of hard work for us to do, but if we continue to fight as hard as we do, we can finish on a high note.”
Texas State closes out the regular season at Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana on April 16-17 before playing in the Southland Conference Tournament at UTSA on April 29-May 1.
