San Marcos, Texas – The Texas State women's tennis team won their first dual match of the 2014 season when the Bobcats outlasted UTEP in a 5-2 victory over UTEP on Saturday at the Bobcat Tennis Complex.
 
Texas State looked as if it were going to cruise to an easy victory in doubles play as the Bobcats won all three matches to capture the team point and take an early 1-0 lead.  Jessica Kahts and Ana Laura Gutierrez began the day winning their No. 1 match against Rebeca Cavillo and Davina Meza by a score of 6-3.
 
Then, Katy Collins teamed with Eva Dench to beat Marie LeBlond and Gabi Vazquez by a score of 6-4 in the No. 3 match. In the No. 2 match, Monica Pieratt teamed with Shannon Beckett to edge Matilda Rose Tench and Daphne Visscher 7-6 after winning the tiebreaker by score of 7-3.
 
The Bobcats appeared to be cruising to an easy victory when Dench won her No. 6 match by the score of 6-3, 6-0 against Tench. However, UTEP gained some momentum when the Miners closed to within 2-1 after Meza defeated Pieratt by the score of 6-3, 6-3 in the No. 2 match.
 
Then the whole complexion of the match changed, as the remaining singles matches were not decided until after a third set super tiebreaker to 10 points was played.
 
Kahts, who entered the season ranked No. 16 in the Texas Region, won the first set of her No. 1 match by the score of 6-3. However, Cavillo answered the challenge when she won the second set by the same score. However, Kahts came back to win the third-set tiebreaker by a score of 10-7.
 
In the No. 4 singles match, Gutierrez lost the first set against Vasquez, 6-3, before she came back to win the final two sets. She won the second set by the score of 6-1 and came back from a 9-8 deficit in the third set to win the tiebreaker by a score of 12-10. It was her first collegiate victory in singles play and clinched the victory for the Bobcats.
 
Beckett also won her No. 3 match against LeBlond in three sets for Texas State's final team point. First, she won the first set by the score of 7-6 after winning the tiebreaker, 7-3. After LeBlond answered by winning the second set, 6-2, Beckett overcame an 8-7 deficit in the third-set tiebreaker by winning the final three points and capturing the tiebreaker, 10-7.
 
In the final singles match, Collins dropped a three-set decision against Visscher, but she almost fought her way back to a victory. After Visscher won the first set by a score of 6-2, Collins came back to win the second set 7-6 after winning the tiebreaker, 9-7, to force a third set. Visscher jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the third set and needed just two more points to win the match. However, Collins won six of the next seven points to close to within 9-8 before Visscher captured the next point to win the match 10-8.
 
With the victory, Texas State improves its record this spring to 1-2 and will play its first match against a Sun Belt Conference opponent when the Bobcats play host to UL Lafayette on Feb. 8 at 1:00 p.m.