RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women's tennis team battled hard but dropped a tough 4-3 match to the Abilene Christian (ACU) Wildcats Sunday at the Orville Cox Tennis Center.
ACU (5-9, 2-0 Western Athletic Conference) took the early 1-0 lead with wins on the second and third doubles courts. Graduate student
Isabelle Bahr and junior
Marjorie Souza improved to 2-0 in conference play in the No. 1 flight with a 6-3 victory, playing consistent and smart tennis. UTRGV's (8-7, 0-1 WAC) No. 3 duo of junior
Kristal Dule and sophomore
Valentina Urraco competed well in their match, coming back from down 3-5 to tie the bout at 5-5 with the doubles point hanging in the balance. ACU's
Olivia Sears and
Andrea Guerrero clinched the point with a tough 7-5 win.
The singles session was tight across the courts. The Wildcats extended their lead to 2-0 with a win on the sixth singles court. But the Vaqueros took the first set on the second, third, fourth and fifth courts, keeping them right in the thick of things as they showed great fight to erase early deficits.
Sophomore
Yaiza Vazquez got the Vaqueros on the board with a 6-2, 6-4 win on the fourth court. She showed her toughness to hold off a comeback effort in the second to trim the deficit to 2-1.
Souza, Dule and senior
Lea Karren all went to full third sets with the team victory up for grabs. Souza showed incredible mental fortitude to bounce back after dropping the first set of her No. 1 match, 6-3. She went down 1-4 in the second then roared back to take five consecutive games and win, 6-4.
Bahr picked up a straight-set victory on Court Two. She battled to take a 7-5 win in a back-and-forth first, then took control of the second quickly to take the frame 6-2 and secure her win, knotting the match at 2-2. ACU regained a 3-2 lead with a win in the fifth flight.
Souza finished her fight in thrilling fashion, taking the third set 7-6 (7:5). She went toe-to-toe with Sears as the two exchanged small scoring runs until the tiebreaker was locked at 5:5. Souza took control to win it, 7-6 (7:5), and improve to 2-0 in conference play on the top court while knotting the match at 3-3.
The match came down to an unlucky bounce for the Vaqueros on Court Three. Karren took an evenly contested first set, 7-5, over
Masha Vrsalovic, but dropped the second, 3-6. Karren fell behind 3-5 in the deciding third, then found another gear to force a tiebreaker at 6-6. The two swapped scores to an 8:8 tie, keeping things as close as possible. Then, Vrsalovic got a break when her serve hit the net but stayed in, putting her up 9:8. She went on to clinch the victory for ACU.
Up next for UTRGV is a conference match at #63 Grand Canyon Thursday at 3 p.m. (CT).
Complete Results
Doubles (2, 1, 3)
1.
Isabelle Bahr/
Marjorie Souza (UTRGV) def. Masha Vrsalovic/Maria Cascos (ACU) 6-3
2. Libby Blair/Maryjoe Crisologo (ACU) def.
Lea Karren/
Yaiza Vazquez (UTRGV) 6-1
3. Olivia Sears/Andrea Guerrero (ACU) def.
Kristal Dule/
Valentina Urraco (UTRGV) 7-5
Singles (6, 4, 2, 5, 1, 3)
1.
Marjorie Souza (UTRGV) def. Olivia Sears (ACU) 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7:5)
2.
Isabelle Bahr (UTRGV) def. Maryjoe Crisologo (ACU) 7-5, 6-2
3. Masha Vrsalovic (ACU) def.
Lea Karren (UTRGV) 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (10:8)
4.
Yaiza Vazquez (UTRGV) def. Maria Cascos (ACU) 6-2, 6-4
5. Andrea Guerrero (ACU) def.
Kristal Dule (UTRGV) 3-6, 6-1, 6-1
6. Libby Blair (ACU) def.
Valentina Urraco (UTRGV) 6-1, 6-0
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