SAN MARCOS, Texas – Despite the match coming down to the last set in singles, Texas State women's tennis dropped its match against UTSA 4-3 on Saturday at the Bobcat Tennis Complex.
The Bobcats (0-2) earned singles wins by
Andrea Pineda (No. 5),
Sofia Fortuno (No. 4) and
Kiana Graham (No. 1) to take a 3-2 lead in the match, but losses in the third sets at the No. 2 and No. 3 courts closed out the narrow defeat to the Roadrunners (3-0).
"I thought today's match was another strong showing from our team as far as their competitiveness and fight goes," said Texas State head coach
Kendall Brooks. "It couldn't have been any closer, and we gave ourselves the opportunity to win in the end, and just fell short. It would have been nice to get the doubles point to give ourselves some cushion, and we need to keep working on that looking forward. I felt like we got better from last week and hopefully that continues leading into two more matches at home next week."
Doubles
The Bobcats lost the doubles point after a 6-2 loss at No. 2 (Fortuno and
Callie Creath) and 6-3 defeat at No. 3 (Graham and
Emily Niers). The No. 1 duo of
Mae McCutcheon and
Jadeh Chan fought to a close 7-5 defeat.
Singles
Following the loss of the doubles point, Pineda quickly put away UTSA's Cassie McLay 6-3, 6-0 on the fifth court to get the Bobcats their first point of the day.
The Roadrunners took the lead again with a straight-set win on the sixth court, but the Bobcats fought back as the remaining four singles matches all went three sets.
On the fourth court, Fortuno won her first set 6-4, and after dropping her second set 6-2, she came back and won the third set 6-2 to take down Ekua Youri.
On the first court, Graham beat Aleksandra Zlatarova 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 for her first singles win of the young season and give the Bobcats a 3-2 advantage in the match.
Niers and Creath, playing on the second and third courts, respectively, both took their matches into the third set. Creath dropped her first set 6-3, bounced back in the second with a 6-3 win, but fell short in the third set 6-3 – leaving the result of the match in the hands of Niers on the second court. After dropping her first set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-4), Niers overcame it with a 6-4 win in the second against Fatima Gutierrez. With all eyes on the final set at No. 2, Gutierrez clinched the match for the Roadrunners with a 6-2 win in the third set.
Up Next
The Bobcats continue their season with two home matches next week. On Thursday, the Bobcats face UIW at 2 p.m. and on Friday, they face off against Sam Houston at 1 p.m.
