BEAUMONT, Texas – The No. 7 seed University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women's tennis program is ready for the quarterfinals of the Southland Conference (SLC) Women's Tennis Championships as they face No. 2 Northwestern State (NSU) Sunday at Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center.
 
Last Time Out

UTRGV dropped a pair of SLC matches in their final conference road trip, falling 6-1 at Southeastern and 5-2 at McNeese.
 
Sophomore Luna Buijtenhuijs shined in her final conference weekend, rising to the top flight in singles and earning wins at Southeastern and McNeese. The wins also represented her first-career victories at the top court.
 
At Southeastern, Buijtenhuijs rallied to defeat Panatachakorn Suanarsa 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10:2). In the second set, Buijtenhuijs jumped out to a big 3-0 lead before Suanarsa closed the gap, knotting the set at 3-3. The pair traded games until 5-5, where Buijtenhuijs broke Suanarsa for fifth time in the second set and served out the set in the final game. In the tiebreak, Buijtenhuijs exploded to a 6-0 lead before Suanarsa got on the board. Buijtenhuijs cruised from there, winning 10-2 to win the match.
 
At McNeese, Buijtenhuijs defeated the reigning SLC Women's Tennis Player of the Year, Salome Fluri. She jumped out to a huge 4-1 lead in the first set before Fluri narrowed the gap to 5-4. Buijtenhuijs closed out the set with a massive game to take it 6-4. Fluri bounced back, winning the second 6-2 to set up the deciding 10-point tiebreaker.
 
In the tiebreaker, Buijtenhuijs rallied from multiple point deficits on three occasions. First, she trailed 3-1 before knotting it at 3-3. Then, she fell behind 5-3 before rattling off four straight points to take a 7-5 lead. However, Fluri won four consecutive points to set up double match point. Trailing 9-7, Buijtenhuijs once again came through, this time winning four in a row to take the tiebreaker, 1-0 (11:9).
 
Junior Rhea Makesar earned the first win for the Vaqueros, defeating Stella Rundova 6-1, 6-4 on court three. In the first set, Makesar and Rundova were tied at 1-1 before Makesar strung together five straight games to take a swift first set. The pair traded games in the second set until Makesar broke to take a 4-2 lead. The pair then traded breaks until Makesar pulled through with a 6-4 second set win.
 
#2 Northwestern State – April 19, 10 a.m. – Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center
 
The Vaqueros will face the NSU Demons Sunday at 10 a.m. in the quarterfinals of the SLC Championships. UTRGV hosted the Demons earlier this season, falling 4-3, in the conference opener in Edinburg.
 
In that match, the Vaqueros earned the doubles point with wins on courts two and three while also picking up wins by junior Hitakamya Narwal on court two and sophomore Luna Buijtenhuijs on court four.
 
NSU enters the SLC Tournament as the No. 2 seed after finishing the season with an 11-7 overall record and a 7-2 record in SLC play. The Demons only losses in conference play at regular season champion McNeese and against Incarnate Word.
 
The Demons are led by Martina Acebedo Bonocore, who was just named SLC Freshman of the Year and earned All-Conference recognitions at No. 4 singles and No. 3 doubles. Alongside Bonocore, three other Demons earned all-conference honors.
 
All matches at the SLC Championships are held at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center and are free and open to the public.

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