WACO, Texas – No. 9 Texas A&M improved to 3-0 and notched its eighth consecutive win against former Big 12 Conference-foe Baylor with a hard fought 4-0 victory over the 15th-ranked Bears tonight at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
“It was a very good win,” A&M first-year head coach Mark Weaver said. “Baylor has been one of the top programs in the nation over the last 10 or 15 years, and every time we play them it is a battle. The 4-0 score is very misleading. Every match was a dogfight tonight. I don’t think it was the best tennis we could play. I’m not so sure it was the best tennis they could play, but it ended up being a very hotly contested match. I do feel like we were really mentally tough down the stretch. It required a ton of physical exertion, and I couldn’t be more proud of our effort. It was a great team win.”
A&M, which was coming off a thrilling 4-3 victory over 37th-ranked Wichita State on Sunday to improve to 2-0, won the first two doubles matches to be completed to take a 1-0 lead against the Bears. Junior Saska Gavrilovska and freshman Domenica Gonzalez cruised to a 6-0 victory over Baylor’s Kelley Anderson and Rhiann Newborn at the No. 3 line. Junior Rutuja Bhosale and senior Anna Mamalat then clinched the point, winning four consecutive games to close out a 6-2 victory over Gabriela Ferreira and Karina Traxler to secure the point.
Baylor’s 12th-ranked duo of Kiah Generette and Blaire Shankle held a 4-3 lead over A&M’s Eva Paalma andRachel Pierson at the No. 1 court, but the match was stopped once the doubles point was determined.
Paalma, who received SEC Player of the Week honors earlier in the day for clinching both of A&M’s victories during the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, remained perfect on the season in singles as she was first off in singles. The sophomore from Estonia improved to 3-0, winning eight straight games to complete a straight-set 6-2, 6-0 victory over Newborn at the No. 4 line.
A&M took a 3-0 lead as 58th-ranked Pierson defeated Anderson, 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 2 line. Baylor, however, was making things interesting as the three-time defending Big 12 regular-season champion and the two-time defending conference tournament champion had won the first set on three other courts and was making a second-set comeback on the other court after dropping the first set.
“After the doubles point and the way the singles started, I felt like we were going to run away with the match,” Weaver said, “but credit Baylor for fighting extremely hard. So many of the matches were coming down to the wire. I think we were just a little bit grittier and tougher towards the end.”
All four remaining matches would go a third set with Mamalat coming back to defeat Ferriera with a back-and-forth 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory at the No. 6 line to clinch the decisive fourth point and preserve the shutout for the Aggies, who handed Baylor (3-1) its first loss of the season.
Gavrilovska, ranked 53rd in the nation in singles, was serving for the match against Generette at the No. 1 line when play was stopped. Generette had won the first set, 6-3, and Gavrilovska took the second set by the identical score to force a third set. Gavrilovska broke Generette in the first game of the final set and went on to build a 5-2 lead before Mamalat clinched the match.
Bhosale had let several set points slip away in the opening frame against Theresa Van Zyl, who came back to win a tiebreaker, 7-4, to take the set at the No. 3 line. Bhosale, however, went up a break to take a 6-5 lead in the second set and then held serve to win, 7-5, and force a third set. The final set was tied at 1-1 when play was stopped.
Gonzalez had also let a set point slip away at the No. 5 line, allowing Traxler to tie the opening set, 5-5. Gonzalez, however, would redeem herself by winning the next two games to take the set, 7-5.
It was Traxler who won two consecutive games to pull away from a 4-4 tie in the second set to win, 6-4, and even the match at a set apiece. The third set was on serve with Gonzalez up, 5-4, before Mamalat clinched the win.
“The team really came together,” Weaver said. “That has kind of been one of the big things [Associate Head Coach Patrick Sullivan] and I have been working on is really helping the girls get the team feel, and I really feel like the girls have come together as a team and that is the reason we have won the last two matches. The good news is that we have had two very good wins and the best tennis is yet to come.”
The Aggies face No. 5 North Carolina on Sunday, Jan. 31 in Chapel Hill, N.C., before heading to for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, Feb. 5-8, in Madison, Wisconsin.
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
#9 Texas A&M 4, #15 Baylor 0
Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center
Waco, Texas
January 27, 2016
Singles
1. #53 Saska Gavrilovska (A&M) vs. Kiah Generette (BU), 3-6, 6-3, 5-2 unfinished
2. #56 Rachel Pierson (A&M) def. Kelley Anderson (BU), 6-3, 6-4
3. #106 Rutuja Bhosale (A&M) vs. Theresa Van Zyl (BU), 6-7 (4), 7-5, 1-1 unfinished
4. Eva Paalma (A&M) def. Rhiann Newborn (BU), 6-2, 6-0
5. Domenica Gonzalez (A&M) vs. Karina Traxler (BU), 7-5, 4-6, 5-4
6. Anna Mamalat (A&M) def. Gabriela Ferreira (BU), 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4
Doubles (A&M wins the point)
1. Paalma/Pierson (A&M) vs. #12 Generette/Blair Shankle (BU), 3-4 unfinished
2. Bhosale/Mamalat (A&M) def. Ferreira/Traxler (BU), 6-2
3. Gavrilovska/Gonzalez (A&M) def. Anderson/Newborn (BU), 6-0
Order of finish
Doubles: 3, 2
Singles: 4, 2, 6
Team records
Texas A&M: 3-0
Baylor: 3-1
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics