COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M women’s tennis team won the doubles point as well as five of six singles matches to defeat No. 54 TCU, 6-1, in front of 452 today at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
“As a whole, obviously I’m very pleased,” A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. “There were a lot of times in this match, in doubles and singles, where we could have panicked a little bit, and if we would have panicked it would have affected us and we could have lost the match. But I thought the girls held their composure very well, kept playing solid tennis and kept going for their shots. I thought this was one of the better matches we have played.”
No. 33 A&M won the first two doubles matches to be completed to take a 1-0 lead. A&M’s Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas) and Christi Potgieter (Petrusville, South Africa) were first off the court after winning six consecutive games to close out an 8-2 victory over Maria Babanova and Idunn Hertzberg at the No. 3 line.
A&M’s Morgan Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.) and Nazari Urbina (Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico) clinched the point for the Aggies, posting three service breaks against Gaby Mastromarino and Olivia Smith en route to an 8-4 victory at the No. 2 line.
“Stephanie and Christi, that is some of the best that they have played,” Kleinecke responded when asked about the doubles. “I felt really good there. And Naz and Morgan, it’s almost like when you win all the time like that, it can be taken for granted, but they do very well with the game they’ve got.”
Janelle Cuthbertson (Perth, Australia) and Christi Liles (Largo, Fla.) made a late rally at No. 1 but came up short as Federica Denti and Katariina Tuohimaa prevented a sweep by the Aggies. The TCU tandem had built a 7-3 lead when Cuthbertson and Liles reeled off three consecutive games to get within 7-6. TCU then held serve to secure the 8-6 win.
In singles, A&M won first sets on five of six courts but TCU fought back on several courts to make things interesting.
Liles drew praise from the Aggies’ head coach with her 6-1, 6-0 victory over Shalini Sahoo at the No. 4 position, which put A&M ahead, 2-0.
“Someone who has really stood out to me is Christi Liles,” Kleinecke said. “She is playing extremely well right now and did a good job of just taking care of it. She has been hitting the ball really well, moving well and handling the pressure well. And she has been a good leader, and that has been key for us.”
Mastromarino then put the Horned Frogs on the scoreboard, blanking Cuthbertson in straight sets at the No. 5 line.
Davidson put the Aggies up 3-1 and within a point of securing the team victory after finishing off Hertzberg, 6-1, 6-3, but the final three points would remain in limbo with TCU holding tough at the top of the lineup.
Urbina, No. 17 in the national ITA singles rankings, managed to pull away for a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Tuohimaa at the No. 1 line to finally clinch the winning point for A&M. It was Urbina’s fourth consecutive win.
Frank and Denti were battling it out at the No. 2 line, where Frank broke away for a 7-5 victory in the first set and Denti took the second set, 6-4. In the 10-point super-tiebreaker third set, Frank held a 7-6 lead and then scored three of the next four points to wrap up the win.
“I don’t think (Urbina) or Morgan played their best tennis today, but they did a good job of holding in there and fighting, working and believing that it wasn’t going to go south on them,” Kleinecke said.
Potgieter, a freshman who joined the team in January, trailed Smith at the No. 3 line, 6-5, in the first set and was trying to even the score and force a tiebreaker when she rolled her ankle. Athletic trainer Staci Schneider taped the ankle midway through the crucial game, and Potgieter returned to the court and won the game to force a tiebreaker. Potgieter quickly fell behind, 4-1, in the tiebreaker but rallied to win, 7-5, to take the set.
Potgieter then won the first two games of the second set, but Smith won six of the next seven games to win the set, 6-3, and force a super tiebreaker. The tiebreaker was knotted at 7-7 before Potgieter won the next three points to close out the match.
“I’m really proud of Christi Potgieter after spraining her ankle,” Kleinecke said. “A lot of times when a player comes in January, they don’t understand what college tennis is all about. This is still pretty early in the season, and I’m glad she showed that heart. Now she knows she can do it, and we know she can do it.”
The Aggies improve to 3-2 — all against ranked opponents – including 2-0 in home matches. TCU drops to 1-2.
The Aggies have a 12-day break before they return to the Mitchell Tennis Center on Thursday, Feb. 24 to play host to No. 63 Fresno State. First serve is at 6 p.m.
“I want days like this where we feel like we can improve and get out there and play,” Kleinecke said. “We have a week and a half now, and I think it is going to be important that we just get some good weather and get out there on the court and improve.”