Match Statistics
Texas State vs New Mexico State Gallery
San Marcos, Texas – Even though she didn't think her team played very well, Texas State head tennis coach
Tory Plunkett was pleased to see her team fight their way to a 6-1 victory over New Mexico State at the Bobcat Tennis Complex on Tuesday afternoon.
“We didn't execute very well after having a couple of days off and coming back from Spring Break,” said Plunkett. “But, we fought extremely hard and showed some mental toughness when we came back from being down in some matches and won. This was a good match for us.”
Texas State's first comeback came in doubles play when its No. 3 team of
Rachel Baldree and
Mariana Perez overcame a 6-3 deficit and won their match against Ginet Pinero and Ros-Polly Nguyen by a score of 9-7.
That victory clinched the team point for the Bobcats because it came after
Gabriela Rojas and
Francesca Bernes won their No. 2 match against Denise Van Der Ben and Annemieke Witte by a score of 8-5.
Texas State also won the No. 1 doubles match as
Jessica Kahts and
Melissa Hadad overcame a 7-6 deficit and edged Natalia Salum and Marion Sylvain, 9-8, after winning the tiebreaker by a score of 9-7.
“Winning the three doubles matches was huge for us because they were all close matches and that prepared us for the singles matches,” added Plunkett.
Texas State had to fight hard to win three of the singles matches as the Bobcats came from behind to win two of them and three of their five victories were won in the third and final set.
New Mexico State evened the team score at 1-1 when Nguyen defeated Bérénice Van den Bergh in the No. 5 match by a score of 6-1, 6-0.
But the Bobcats recaptured the momentum when Kahts won the No. 1 match against Sylvain by a score of 6-4, 6-1. In that match, Kahts jumped out to a 5-0 lead before Sylvain won four straight games. Kahts came back to win the set and easily captured the second set.
Bernes gave the Bobcats a 3-1 lead in the team score when she won her No. 6 match against Witte by a score of 6-2, 6-4.
“That was a real turnaround for Frankie compared to how she has played the rest of this season,” said Plunkett. “She stayed positive throughout her match and even helped pump up her teammate next her (Perez), who was losing early and came back to win.”
But, it was Rojas who clinched the victory for the Bobcats after she won her No. 3 match against Salum. Rojas lost the first set, 6-1, and was trailing 4-1 when she fought back to force the second set to be decided by a tiebreaker. With the score tied at 6-6, Rojas won the tiebreaker by a score of 7-3 and went on to easily capture the third set 6-1 to give the Bobcats an insurmountable 4-1 lead.
Perez was the next Bobcat to record a comeback victory in her No. 4 match against Pinero. Perez lost the first set 6-4 and was trailing 3-0 in the second set before Bernes' encouragement helped her to come back and win the second set, 7-5, and win the third-set tiebreaker by a score of 10-6.
Hadad won the No. 2 match to close out Texas State's win with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Van Der Ben.
The victory was Texas State's ninth straight win and gives the Bobcats a 9-1 record in dual matches this spring. Texas State will travel to Rice for another non-conference match on Thursday when they play No. 29-ranked Owls at the Jake Hess Center at 2:00 p.m. Rice enters the match with a 10-4 overall ranking.
Following Thursday's match, Texas State returns to Southland Conference action when the Bobcats play host to defending champion UT Arlington in an 11.00 a.m. match on Saturday morning at the Bobcat Tennis Complex. The two teams are tied at the top of the Southland Conference standings with 4-0 league records.
The Bobcats also play host to Houston on Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. before closing out the regular season with six Southland Conference matches.
