SAN MARCOS, TEXAS (April 9, 2011) Playing their first home match since March 13, the Texas State women’s tennis team came back to capture a pivotal doubles point and went on to defeat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 5-2 in a Southland Conference match on Saturday afternoon at the Bobcat Tennis Complex.
The Bobcats began the match with Melissa Hadad and Jessica Kahts winning the No. 1 doubles match over Sandra Burgess and Mirna Cicak 8-6. In the No. 3 match, Jessica Laing and Mariana Perez suffered an 8-6 setback against Mia Matuszak and Stefania Nicolae. In the pivotal No. 2 match, Gabriela Rojas and Berenice Van Den Bergh was trailing 5-1 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Bianca Discordia and Doris Kuselj, before they came back to score seven of the final eight points to win the match 8-6 and give the Bobcats the doubles team point.
“I am not sure if we would have won the match had we not come back and win the doubles point,” said Texas State head coach Tory Plunkett. “You might have seen the match flip-flop with them winning 4-3.”
After winning the doubles point, Texas State came back and won four of the six singles matches. Van Den Bergh began singles play with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Matuszak in the No. 6 match. Van Den Bergh was ahead in the second set by a score of 4-1, before Matuszak won two straight points to pull to within 4-3, but Van Den Bergh came right back to score the final two points in the match.
In the number 2 match, Hadad also won 6-3, 6-2 over Kuselj after she scored the final three points in the second set. Hadad held a 2-1 lead before she and Kuselj split the next two points to set up her rally. It marks the third straight win for Hadad as she improved her dual match record to 9-6, which is the best record for the Bobcats this spring.
Rojas clinched the victory with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Discordia in the No. 3 match. Rojas trailed 3-2 in the second set of her match before she came back to score five of the final six points in the match and pull out the victory.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi won their first singles match when Nicolae defeated Jessica Laing 6-3, 7-5.
The other victory for the Bobcats came in the No. 5 match when Perez came back after losing the first set by a score of 6-1, and won the second set 6-2. Then, she won the super tiebreaker by a score of 10-2.
Kahts also took her No. 1 match against Cicak to three sets. Cicak won the first set 7-5, before Kahts came back to win the second set by a score of 6-3. In the super tiebreaker, Kahts trailed 5-1 before winning five of the next eight points to pull to within 8-6. However, Cicak won the final two points to clinch the victory.
“We are a group of freshmen and sophomores who had to begin their conference schedule playing three of the league’s four best teams,” said Plunkett. “This was huge for us to bounce back and win this match. I am hoping that we can finish strong in our last three matches before the SLC Tournament.”
Texas State will play their final home match of the season on Sunday when they play host to UTSA in the annual I-35 Maroon vs. Orange rivalry at the Bobcat Tennis Complex, That match begins at 1:00 p.m. The Bobcats conclude the regular season with road matches at Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana.
The victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi improves Texas State’s record to 8-7, and the Bobcats are 4-4 against Southland Conference teams. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi fell to 8-4, and the Islanders are 5-3 versus SLC teams heading into their match at UT Arlington on Sunday.
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