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Houston, Texas – The Texas State women's tennis team faced their toughest challenge of the season and had their nine-match winning streak snapped when the Bobcats suffered a 6-1 loss at No. 28-ranked Rice on Thursday afternoon at Jake Hess Stadium.
 
Texas State had hoped to catch the Owls a little off guard and possibly win the doubles point to start the match, but those hopes were dashed after Rice suffered its first home loss of the season against Illinois on Monday.
 
Instead, the Owls opened the match in dominant fashion as they won all three doubles matches against Texas State's previously unbeaten doubles teams to move ahead 1-0.
 
The most compelling battle in doubles happened in the No. 3 match when Mariana Perez and Rachel Baldree battled back from a 4-1 early deficit to get back into contention against Kimberly Anicete and Stephanie Nguyen.
 
Perez and Baldree, who entered the day with an 8-0 doubles record this spring, fought to within 5-4 before Anicete and Nguyen won the final three points to capture an 8-4 victory.
 
In the No. 2 match, Gabriela Rojas and Francesca Bernes had entered the day with a 2-0 record, but fell 8-1 against Ana Guzman and Katie Gater.
 
In the No. 1 match, Jessica Kahts and Melissa Hadad also suffered an 8-1 setback against No. 42-ranked Natalie Beazant and Dominique Harmath. It was the first loss in 10 matches this spring from Kahts and Hadad.
 
 
In singles play, Baldree scored Texas State's lone point in the match when she won a three-set battle against Gater in the No. 3 match. Baldree led 4-3 in the first set, but Gater came back and won the set 7-6 after winning the tiebreaker by a score of 7-4.
 
But after trailing 2-1 early in the second set, Baldree came back to tie the match by winning the set, 7-5. She also won the third-set tiebreaker by a score of 10-3 in the final match of the day.
 
Singles play began with Anicete winning the No. 5 match with a 6-1, 6-1 decision over Perez.  Kahts also suffered a 6-3, -2 loss in the No. 1 match against Beazant, who entered the day ranked 46th-nationally.  The Owls clinched the victory when Bernes fell 6-4, 6-1 against Nguyen in the No. 6 match to give Rice a 4-0 lead.
 
 
Rojas also put up an early battle in the No. 4 match against Guzman before surrendering 7-5, 6-1. In the No. 2 match, Hadad also put up an early battle before falling 7-5, 6-2 against Harmath.
 
The loss drops Texas State to 9-2 overall this season and the Bobcats are tied for first place in the Southland Conference standings with a 4-0 record.
 
Texas State won't have much time to recover because the Bobcats return to league play on Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. when they play host to defending SLC champion UT Arlington at the Bobcat Tennis Complex.  UTA also enters the match with a 4-0 SLC record and are 8-5 overall this season after the Mavericks suffered a
                                    
Texas State also plays its final non-conference match this weekend when the Bobcats play host to Houston at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday at the Bobcat Tennis Complex.