BEAUMONT – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women's tennis team lost a heartbreaking, extremely tight match 3-4 to the Seattle U Redhawks in the quarterfinals of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Tournament on Friday at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center, ending their season. 
 
#5 Seattle U (4-12) opened up a 1-0 lead after a tight battle on the doubles courts. The Redhawks won on court two, then #4 UTRGV (11-10) answered with a win in the third flight by senior Sandra Putz and junior Kristyna Mamicova. Seattle U won the first flight 6-4 to jump ahead. 
 
Sophomore Lea Karren was dominant in her return to the court, playing for the first time in over two months after being sidelined with an injury. She breezed to a 6-1, 6-0 victory at No. 3 to make it 1-1. 
 
Seattle U picked up a hard win at the No. 1 spot, then the Vaqueros tied the match again with a come-from-behind victory at No. 5. Sophomore Stefanie Wilske responded brilliantly from a 2-6 loss in the first, winning the next two sets 6-4, 6-0 and energizing her teammates along the way. 
 
The Redhawks reclaimed the advantage 3-2 with a three-set win at No. 2. Freshman Barbara Martinez and Putz were locked in battles that both needed to win. 
 
Putz won the first set of her No. 6 match 7-5, then found herself in a thrilling battle in the second. She held off a valiant effort from Jade Lancaster in the second to push to a tiebreaker at 6-6. After finding herself down 2-4 in the tiebreaker, Putz came back to win the match 7-6 (8-6) and tie the overall score at 3-3. 
 
Martinez showed great fight in her No. 4 match, grinding through a 6-7 (7-9) loss in the first set and overcoming a 0-4 deficit in the second to tie the match by winning six consecutive games en route to a 6-4 second set win. She went down 0-5 in the deciding third and fought to take one game back and make it 1-5, but Elena Kraleva held on to take the win 6-1. 
 
Complete Results 
Singles (3, 1, 5, 2, 6, 4)  
1. Mireia Fehr (SU) def. Isabelle Bahr (UTRGV) 0-6, 6-0, 6-3 
2. Liliya Dimova (SU) def. Marjorie Souza (UTRGV) 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 
3. Lea Karren (UTRGV) def. Jade Quintana (SU) 6-1, 6-0 
4. Elena Kraleva (SU) def. Barbara Martinez (UTRGV) 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 6-1 
5. Stefanie Wilske (UTRGV) def. Aranza Alvarez-Sanabria (SU)  2-6, 6-4, 6-0 
6. Sandra Putz (UTRGV) def. Jade Lancaster (SU) 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) 
 
Doubles (2, 3, 1) 
1. Elena Kraleva/Liliya Dimova (SU) def. Marjorie Souza/Barbara Martinez (UTRGV) 6-4
2. Jade Lancaster/Mireia Fehr (SU) def. Katarina Sasaroga/Isabelle Bahr (UTRGV) 6-3
3. Kristyna Mamicova/Sandra Putz (UTRGV) def. Jade Quintana/Aranza Alvarez-Sanabria (SU) 6-3 

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