Women's Tennis | 3/18/2016 8:49:00 PM
SAN MARCOS, Texas - Playing in its first home match since January 23, the Texas State women's tennis team came from behind to beat UTEP, 4-3, at the Bobcat Tennis Complex on Friday afternoon.
"Being down (3-1) and coming back to win 4-3 was pretty amazing," said
Tory Plunkett, head coach for the Bobcats. "We have been playing well and working exceptionally hard. It is a great win for us because it shows the kids that what they are doing is paying off and it is the first win against a difficult team.
UTEP jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after the Miners won the team doubles point and posted a victory in the top singles match.
UTEP scored its first point after the Miners won the No. 3 and No. 1 doubles matches to claim the team doubles point. First,
Katy Collins and
Ammaarah Tim dropped a 6-1 decision against Raven Bennett and Bethan Hayward on the No. 3 court. Then
Yadira Rubio and
Ana Perez lost a 6-2 decision against Vivienne Kulicke and Duda Santos on the No. 1 court.
The Miners also added another point in the team score when Kulicke beat
Eva Dench by a score of 6-2, 6-2 in the No. 1 singles match.
Collins scored Texas State's first team point when she won her No. 4 match against Matilda Tench after dropping the first set by a score of 6-3. However, Collins bounced back to capture the second and third sets in dominant fashion. She won the second set by a score of 6-3 and carried that momentum into the third set, which she won by a 6-1 margin.
UTEP took a commanding 3-1 lead after Rubio suffered a 7-6, 6-3 loss against Lois Wagenvoort on the No. 3 court. However, Texas State refused to surrender and came back to win the final three singles matches.
"You have to give these kids credit for fighting all the way to the end," said Plunkett. "There were a lot of three sets and we pulled those out. It has been a tough semester and I am not sure they would have come out and that earlier this season."
First, Tim posted her first collegiate singles victory when she beat Bethan Hayward in straight sets on the No. 6 court. Tim won the first set by a score of 7-6 after capturing the tiebreaker. Then, she won the second set by a score of 6-3.
Pippa Carr evened the team score at 3-3 when she won her No. 2 match against Santos in three sets. After falling 6-4 in the first set, Carr came back to win the second set by a score of 6-3 and the third set, 6-4, for the victory
That set up another dramatic moment on the No. 5 court where Perez was battling Daphne Visscher In the final match of the day, Perez won the first set by a score of 7-5, but Visscher came back to win the second set by a score of 6-0. In the third set, Perez jumped out to an early 5-2 lead, but Visscher came back to tie the score at 5-5.
With both teams looking on and the outcome of the match hanging in the balance, Perez came back just as her teammates had done earlier in the day. First, she held her serve to take a 6-5 lead and then she had a service break to win the deciding point in the match by a score of 7-5.
The win improves Texas State's record to 5-8 this season, while UTEP falls to 8-8 this season. The Bobcats will play their second straight home match next Tuesday afternoon when they host Central Arkansas.
