ATHENS, Ga. — Texas A&M seniors Rutuja Bhosale and Rachel Pierson both suffered first-round losses on the opening day of the 2017 NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles Championships today at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the University of Georgia campus.
Bhosale fell in her morning match against No. 4 seed and fifth-ranked Ena Shibahara of UCLA, 6-4, 6-2. Pierson, a No. 9-16 seed in the 64-player field, suffered a 7-6 (5), 6-3 loss to Hawaii’s Petra Melounova in a match that started late due to weather and also was interrupted due to lightning.
“Rachel and Rutuja each ran into very tough competition today,” Texas A&M head coach Mark Weaver said. “Shibahara was the No. 4 seed and the national freshman of the year, so she obviously can play. However, the 6-4, 6-2 score does not give justice as to just how close the match was. Fourteen of the 18 games were decided on no-ad points. Unfortunately most of those deciding points didn’t go our way today.
“Melounova also played at a very high level and with a lot of confidence. She literally hasn’t lost a match all year other than her first dual match dating back to January 12th, and she lost that match in three sets. She came up with some very good tennis when the sets were on the line.”
Bhosale, ranked 53rd and making her first appearance in the NCAA Singles Championship, had fallen behind, 4-1, in the opening set against Shibahara but won two no-ad points while winning three consecutive games to put the set back on serve, 4-4. Shibahara, the ITA National Rookie of the Year, broke Bhosale’s serve to go up, 5-4, and then held serve by winning a crucial no-ad point to win the first set, 6-4.
Bhosale, from Pune, India, won a no-ad point to hold serve in the opening game of the second set, but Shibahara went on to win the next five games to go up, 5-1. Bhosale won a no-ad point to get within 5-2 before Shibahara closed out the straight-set victory to advance to the second round.
Shibahara improves to 39-6 overall. Bhosale finishes 78-50 over her four-year singles career after going 20-14 this season, including 7-9 against ranked opponents.
Pierson, making her second appearance in the singles tournament, trailed Melounova, 4-2, in the opening set but won the next two games to put the set back on serve, 4-4. Neither player was able to hold serve over the next four games, and the set went into a tiebreaker after Pierson evened the set at 6-6.
Melounova, No. 70 in the ITA singles rankings, built a 5-3 lead in the tiebreaker, and although 16th-ranked Pierson twice got within a point, she was unable to overcome the deficit and fell, 7-5.
Melounova jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second set before Pierson won three consecutive games to get within 4-3. Melounova, however, would win the next two games to secure the straight-set victory and advance to the second round with a 14-1 overall record.
Pierson, A&M’s first-ever All-American in both doubles and singles, finishes the season 26-16, including 11-14 against ranked opponents. The Princeton, New Jersey, native, who transferred to Texas A&M following her freshman season at the University of Virginia, finishes 64-43 in singles over her three-year Aggie career.
Bhosale and Pierson will represent Texas A&M in the 32-team NCAA Doubles Championship beginning tomorrow at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. A No. 5-8 national seed in the 32-team field, Texas A&M’s first-ever All-American doubles team will open against Astrid Gehre and Anna Wichert of Texas-Arlington at 3:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. CT).
“It was tough knowing that these were the last singles matches that I will have the pleasure of coaching these two individuals who have accomplished so much for our program and made many Aggies out there very proud,” Weaver added. “I know that we will bounce back tomorrow and bring a lot of fire and energy in the doubles. Rachel and Rutuja, having accomplished All-American doubles honors for the first time in the history of our program, have really, really done something special this year, and I am looking forward to seeing them take the court against UTA in the first round tomorrow.”
All matches in the championships are best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a seven-point tiebreaker (first to seven points, must win by two points) at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
Live video and scoring of the matches are available at http://www.georgiadogs.com/sports/m-tennis/spec-rel/vid-stream-ncaa.html
The tournament concludes Monday, May 29.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women’s tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women’s tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Aggie-Womens-Tennis/143874782434654
Results:
NCAA Singles Championship
First Round, Wednesday, May 24
No. 5 Ena Shibahara (UCLA) def. No. 53 Rutuja Bhosale (Texas A&M), 6-4, 6-2
No. 70 Petra Melounova (Hawaii) def. No. 16 Rachel Pierson (Texas A&M), 7-6 (5), 6-3
NCAA Doubles Championship
First Round, Thursday, May 25
No. 7 Bhosale/Pierson (Texas A&M) vs. Gehre/Wichert (UTA), 3:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. CT)
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics