Match Statistics

San Marcos, Texas – In a showdown for first place in the Southland Conference women's tennis standings, No. 41-ranked Stephen F. Austin captured a pivotal team doubles point and went on to hand Texas State a 7-0 loss at the Bobcat Tennis Complex on Friday afternoon.
 
The match began with each team winning a doubles match as Texas State's No. 3 tandem of Rachel Baldree and Mariana Perez came back from a 4-1 deficit and defeated Elena Kordolaimi and Laura Service by a score of 8-6.
 
In the No. 1 match, SFA's Tereza Bekerova and Malena Gordo won the final four points of the match en route to an 8-3 victory over Melissa Hadad and Jessica Kahts.
 
In the No. 2 match, Texas State's Gabriela Rojas and Bérénice Van den Bergh battled back and forth to a 6-5 lead before SFA's Jithmie Jayawickrema and Alina Shazhko won three straight points to pull out an 8-6 victory and give SFA the team point.
 
 “I thought that if we had won the doubles point, it would have been a different outcome in the end,” said Texas State head coach Tory Plunkett. “Our No. 1 doubles team came out a little tight. Our No. 3 doubles played well obviously and I thought our No. 2 team did as well, but they just couldn't pull out the victory at the end.”
 
After capturing a hard-fought doubles point, SFA used that momentum to win five of the six singles matches in straight sets and won the final match with a 10-point tiebreaker in the third set.
 
In the No. 1 match, Kordolaimi won a 6-3, 6-1 decision against Kahts, while Baldree fell 6-4, 6-1 in her No. 3 match against Bekerova.
 
In the No. 6 match Julia Lorca defeated Van den Bergh by the score of 6-3, 6-0; while Antonia Kolovou defeated Perez and Gordo edged Rojas by the scores of 6-4, 6-3 in each match.
 
The only match that was decided with a third set was in the No. 2 match that saw Hadad fall 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 against Shazhko. 
 
“I thought that we came out and battled hard in each match,” said Plunkett. “But, Stephen F. Austin is a very good match and they played about as well as they can in a match today. We just have to turn around and learn from this.
 
Texas State falls to 13-5 overall this season and the Bobcats are 8-2 heading into their final match of the regular season against Sam Houston State this Sunday at the Bobcat Tennis Complex. The victory clinches the SLC championship for Stephen F. Austin, who improved to 20-3 overall and 10-0 in SLC play.
 
The Bobcats can win a second-place standing outright with a victory against Sam Houston State. The Bearkats (11-6, 5-4 in the SLC) travels to San Marcos after playing a match at UT Arlington on Saturday.