Women's Tennis | 3/11/2015 9:03:00 PM

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State women's tennis team captured its third straight victory in home matches when the Bobcats overpowered Missouri State, 6-1, on Wednesday afternoon at the Bobcat Tennis Complex.
 
Texas State began the day unveiling a new lineup in doubles play and captured the team point with a pair of victories. First, seniors Monica Pieratt and Shannon Beckett posted a 6-0 shutout over Mackenzie Rozell and Abbey Belote in the No. 3 match.
 
Then, Katy Collins and Eva Dench, who have combined 4-1 doubles record this season, made their debut on the No. 1 court and posted a 6-3 victory over Ema Turudija and Miranda Poile.
 
The third match was halted with Pippa Carr and Ana Laura Gutierrez holding a 5-3 lead over Ekaterina Donetskova and Anelisse Torrico Moreno after Texas State had captured the team point.
 
The Bobcats also won five of the six singles matches throughout the day to clinched their fourth victory of the season. Singles play began with Collins, Gutierrez and Carr winning their matches in straight sets.
 
First, Collins won the No. 6 match against Belote by a score of 6-0, 6-1. Then, Gutierrez won a 6-1, 6-2 decision over Donetskova in the No. 2 match after winning six straight points to capture the first set and winning the final five points in the second set. Carr won her No. 3 match with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Rozell.
 
The other three singles matches featured tiebreakers deciding five of the nine sets. Pieratt opened the No. 1 match against winning the first set, 7-6, after capturing the tiebreaker 7-4. However, Turudija came back to win the second set by a 7-5 score and won the third set super tiebreaker by a score of 11-9.
 
Then, Dench handed Torrico-Moreno her first loss in nine matches after she won the final two sets in their match. After falling 3-6 in the first set, Dench came back to win the second set by a score of 7-5 and captured the super tiebreaker 10-4 to improve her record to 4-4 in No. 4 matches this season.
 
Beckett also won her No. 5 match against Poile when she came back to win the final two sets with tiebreakers. After dropping the first set, 5-7, Beckett won the second set tiebreaker 8-6 and captured the third set super tiebreaker 10-6.
 
The victory improves Texas State's record to 4-4 this season, and the Bobcats are 4-1 in home matches. However, the Bobcats won't play again at the Bobcat Tennis Complex until April 9.
 
In between, Texas State will play five matches on the road and at neutral sites. The Bobcats begin that stretch at Louisiana Tech on March 18 before facing Arkansas State and UL Lafayette in Monroe, La., on March 20 and 21. Texas State also travels to Arlington, Texas where the Bobcats face UL Monroe on April 3 and UT Arlington on April 4.
 
Missouri State fell to 3-8 and will continue its Texas road trip with matches at UTSA on Thursday and play UT Pan American in San Antonio on Friday.