BAYTOWN - The Tarleton TexAnn tennis team went 2-1 over the weekend at the Lady Rebel Invite hosted by Lee College in Baytown.

The TexAnns dropped the first set 5-4 to Lee College. Nadia Lee and Dionecia Arkina defeated Rocio Cabanillas and Mariana Freitas in No. 1 doubles while Frederique Sunstrum and Manuela Gomez teamed up to defeat Evgeniya Prokofeva and Jade Charlot in No. 2 doubles. Carole Julen and Adriana Jaskova did manage to down Francesca Bassou and Houng Huynh in No. 3 doubles and Tarleton went into singles action down 2-1.

Cabanillas, Prokofeva and Julen each came out winners in singles play, but Jaskova, Charlot and Freitas each fell giving Lee College a 5-4 win.

"Lee College is the defending Junior College national champions and they already had some match play under them and it showed," Tarleton head tennis coach Lance Drake said. "We actually performed better on the court than anticipated due to the short amount of practice time we had this week with the bad weather. It was a good match for both teams and we will use this match to help us show what areas of improvement that we need to work on."

Before the match, both Lee College and Tarleton participated in a can food drive. Lee College has teamed up with United Way of Baytown for a year-long food drive at all volleyball, basketball and tennis home games/matches.

Following the match with Lee College the TexAnns faced Trinity, a top NCAA Division III program, in which Tarleton came out on top 5-1. The TexAnns went 2-1 in doubles as Freitas and Cabanillas defeated Katy Poettcker and Tharindra Ekanayake, while Charlot and Prokofeva defeated Katie Griffith and Megan Jamison. Julen and Jaskova were defeated by Kassie Seger and Katie Budinsky.

Jaskova, Cabanillas and Charlot each won their singles matches that gave Tarleton the win, so Julen, Freitas and Prokofeva's matches went unfinished.

"There is never an easy match with Trinity," Drake said. "They are well coached and a very disciplined team. But we played well against them, winning No. 1 and No. 2 doubles. Both doubles teams played more aggressive this match and it paid off. In singles play, we worked the points much better than we did in the first match and we had strong showings from the top of our line-up."

In Saturday's action, Tarleton defeated NCAA Division I member Praie View A&M, 9-0. The TexAnn doubles teams went 3-0 before even heading into singles play. All six players then went on to defeat their opponents in a one-on-one battle to give the TexAnns the match and a 2-1 record to open the spring.

"Our players played fairly well on Saturday," Drake said. "We were more consistent than our opponents. Some of our players were struggling mentally and found a way to fight through it, other came away without dropping a match. We will continue to work and improve in order to achieve our goals by the end of the season."

The TexAnns will return to action next weekend as the team travels to Arkadelphia, Ark. to play at Ouchita Baptist. Tarleton will fact the Tigers, Drury University and either Southern Arkansas or Henderson State.