Aggie Women’s Tennis Defeats Texas in SEC Opener

News release from Texas A&M Athletics: 

The No. 5 Texas A&M women’s tennis defeated the No. 10 Texas Longhorns in Sunday’s Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown action at the Mitchell Tennis Center, 4-3.

With the victory, the Aggies extended their home winning streak to 76 matches. The Maroon & White sawed off the Horns for the ninth time in the last 12 meetings.

Texas A&M (9-2, 1-0) secured the doubles point on courts 3 and 1 to take an early 1-0 lead. The Maroon & White struck first on court 3, where Daria Smetannikov/Lexington Reed handled Eszter Meri/Salma Drugdova, 6-2. Texas (5-3, 0-1) responded on court 2, as Carmen Herea/Mathilde Ngijol-Carré defeated Violeta Martinez/Ilinca Amariei, 6-4, to even the doubles tally. With the point on the line, No. 15 Mia Kupres/Lucciana Perez delivered on court 1, grinding out a 7-5 victory over Elizabeth Ionescu/Salma Drugdova to clinch the advantage for the Aggies.

Texas A&M carried their momentum into singles play, striking first on court 2 as No. 5 Perez delivered a dominant 6-1, 6-1 victory over No. 21 Anastasia Abbagnato. Martinez added to the tally on court 5, where she topped Mansfield, 6-2, 6-3.

The Longhorns answered on court 4 as McNeil defeated Reed, to put them on the board, 6-3, 0-6, 6-2. On court 6, Ionescu claimed a tiebreaking set over No. 125 Smetannikov, 6-4, 7-6(5), before Amariei battled back against Meri to clinch the match on court 3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

After the match was clinched in A&M’s favor, the Longhorns picked up one more point on court 1, over No. 35 Kupres, 2-6, 6-4, 5-7, to make the final score 4-3.

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