COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M opened the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship with a dominating 5-0 first round victory over Alcorn State today at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
With the win, the No. 10 seed Aggies (16-5) advance to the second round of the tournament for the fourth consecutive year and will face TCU Sunday at the Mitchell Tennis Center. Based on the weather forecast, the start time of Sunday’s match has been moved up to 10 a.m. The 17th-ranked Frogs advanced to the second round with a hard-fought 4-2 victory over Notre Dame.
Texas A&M, heavily favored against the Lady Braves, was returning to action for the first time since a quarterfinal loss at the SEC Tournament on April 17, but the Aggies seemed undeterred by the layoff as they began doubles with commanding 8-0 wins the Nos. 2 and 3 lines. Sophomores Rutuja Bhosale and Saska Gavrilovska were first to finish after disposing of Patricia Normand and Aakanaksha Punj at the No. 3 line. The 39th-ranked duo of Ines Deheza and Stefania Hristov quickly followed as they finished off the Lady Braves’ Ekaterina Potapova and Siobhan Ryan-Bovey at No. 2.
A&M’s Eva Paalma and Rachel Pierson entered their match against Ivana Boberic and Aida Kelic riding a seven-match win streak, but the match went unfinished with the Aggies leading 5-2 at the No. 1 line when play was stopped.
Hristov quickly gave the Aggies a 2-0 lead at the start of singles as the junior from Romania completed an unblemished day with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Punj at the No. 6 court.
Bhosale also was flawless in both doubles and singles, polishing off Boberic, 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 3 line to give A&M a 3-0 lead.
The match-clinching point was simultaneously in progress on courts 2 and 5, with Gavrilovska officially clinching the match with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Ryan-Bovey at No. 2 and Paalma immediately following with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Normand at No. 5 to close out the 5-0 win.
Pierson, ranked a career-high No. 26, held a 6-1, 4-0 lead over Kelic at the No. 1 line, but the match went unfinished. Deheza also was leading her match, 6-2, 5-2 against Potapova at No. 4 when play was stopped.
Alcorn State, playing in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in program history, including the first time since 2008, finishes its season 11-13.
The Aggies will be facing TCU for the second time this season and will be aiming to avenge a 4-2 home loss to the Frogs in the second match of the season which kept A&M from advancing to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. The winner of Sunday’s second-round match advances to the round of 16 to be played Friday, May 15 at Baylor’s Hurd Tennis Center in Waco.
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Texas A&M Head Coach Howard Joffe Quotes:
Opening statement…
It is sort of a weird one because if you look at the two programs, Texas A&M and Alcorn State and the relative resources and stuff that is sort of invested in the programs, it’s not surprising that the result is as lopsided as it is. And then on that basis it becomes sort of hard to extrapolate a ton from such a lopsided victory. I would say this, I think that the kids for Alcorn State probably battled mightily with the wind relative to what their standard is. The thing that I was happy about our group is they were sort of as business-like, professional as they could be, and I wouldn’t read into stuff like we looked sharp. We certain did, but everything is very relative. I was very pleased with our group. Obviously tomorrow is a completely different match in playing Notre Dame or in playing TCU.
On No. 1 doubles getting off to a slow start…
At the No. 1 doubles, it is one of those things, for good and for bad, I wouldn’t read a lot into it: swirling wind, the kids are mindful that they are the prohibitive favorite and they don’t want to miss balls. No matter what you tell them, that is just going to be the case. They did get off to a bit of slow start, but they actually played quite well from 2-love down. More than anything, it gave us an opportunity in my view to be out there for the better part of two and half hours, in the sun, in the wind, just to get used to the conditions so that tomorrow won’t be so different. And the reason I say that, we are accustomed to the wind here but just leading up to this week, we’ve actually had gorgeous weather and so this is a good opportunity in a match setting to play under testing circumstances with the sun and the wind and the humidity.
Alcorn State Head Coach Anthony Dodgen
On today’s match…
“Texas A&M is playing really strong tennis out here. They never gave us a chance to really get into any of the matches. Our girls really struggled with the wind, the conditions, the delays and all of those things, but you have to give credit to Texas A&M. These girls played great tennis, and I want to wish them luck going on through the rest of the tournament here.”
On playing in the NCAA tournament….
“For this group it has been a long time, and I don’t think they quite knew what to expect skill-wise. Texas A&M certainly stepped in here and played some strong tennis and never really gave us a chance.”
#10 Texas A&M 5, Alcorn State 0
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
College Station, Texas
NCAA Championship, First Round
Singles – Order of finish: 6, 3, 2, 5
1. #26 Rachel Pierson (A&M) vs. Aida Kelić (ASU), 6-1, 4-0 unfinished
2. #54 Saska Gavrilovska (A&M) def. Siobhan Ryan-Bovey (ASU), 6-1, 6-1 3. #66 Rutuja Bhosale (A&M) def. Ivana Boberic (ASU), 6-0, 6-0
4. Ines Deheza (A&M) vs. Ekaterina Potapova (ASU), 6-2, 5-2 unfinished 5. Eva Paalma (A&M) def. Patricia Normand (ASU), 6-0, 6-0
6. Stefania Hristov (A&M) def. Aakanaksha Punj (ASU), 6-0, 6-0
Doubles – Order of finish: 3, 2
1. #13 Paalma/Pierson (A&M) vs. Boberic/Kelić (ASU), 5-2 unfinished 2. #39 Deheza/Hristov (A&M) def. Potapova/Ryan-Bovey (ASU), 8-0 3. Bhosale/Gavrilovska (A&M) def. Normand/Punj (ASU), 8-0
Team records:
Texas A&M: 16-5
Alcorn State: 11-13
#17 TCU 4, #34 Notre Dame 2
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
College Station, Texas
NCAA Championship, First Round
Singles – Order of finish: 5,6,3,4,2
1. #90 Stefanie Tan (TCU) vs. Quinn Gleason (ND) 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 2-2, unfinished
2. #46 Simona Parajova (TCU) def. Monica Robinson (ND), 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-3
3. Sofiko Kadzhaya (TCU) def. Julie Vrabel (ND), 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
4. Mary Closs (ND) def. Palina Dubavets (TCU), 6-4, 2-6, 7-5
5. Allison Miller (ND) def. Seda Arantekin (TCU), 6-2, 6-3
6. Alexis Pereira (TCU) def. Jane Fennelly (ND), 6-3, 6-2
Doubles – Order of finish: 2,1
1. #30 Arantekin/Tan (TCU) def. #29 Gleason/Robinson (ND), 8-5\
2. Dubavets/Pereira (TCU) def. Miller/Vrabel (ND), 8-4
3. Kadzhaya/Parajova (TCU) vs. Closs/Fennelly (ND), 6-7 unfinished
Team records:
TCU: 19-8
Notre Dame: 14-11
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics