Tournament Central

STEPHENVILLE – After advancing to the LSC Championship semifinals with a 5-0 sweep of Texas A&M-Kingsville, No. 17 Tarleton saw its time in the conference postseason come to an end in a 5-4 heartbreaker against Midwestern State.
 
In the quarterfinals against the Javelinas, Tarleton started strong by sweeping doubles play – holding all three Kingsville teams to a combined five victorious sets.
 
All-Conference doubles tandem Alicia Perez and Karla Martinez handled the No. 1 match 8-2 while Melanie Barnes and Ivana Zecevic took care of business 8-1 in the No. 2 match. Marina Rull and Makenzie Mitchell won the No. 3 match 8-2.
 
With a 3-0 lead, Tarleton needed only two wins in singles play to advance to the semifinals.
 
Zecevic and Silvia Nieva were the first two TexAnns to earn victories, handling the No. 4 and No. 6 matches by a 6-0, 6-0 score.
 
With the win, Tarleton advanced to the semifinals of the tournament where they faced off against the No. 2-seed Midwestern State, who earned a first-round bye in the tournament.
 
In doubles, Perez and Martinez won the No. 1 match in a 9-8 super-tiebreaker, sweeping the tiebreak match 7-0, while Rull and Mitchell won the No. 3 match 8-4 to give Tarleton the advantage after doubles.
 
Barnes and Zecevic dropped a hard-fought 5-8 match in the No. 2 game.
 
Tarleton won the top two seeded matches to take a 4-1 lead, but Midwestern State swept the bottom four matches of the lineup to win the match.
 
Perez (6-2, 6-1) and Martinez (6-2, 6-3) won their matches while Barnes (5-7, 5-7), Zecevic (3-6, 6-1, 2-6), Rull (2-6, 6-7) and Nieva (2-6, 2-6) dropped their matches in the No. 3-6 matches, respectively.
 
Tarleton will now await the latest regional ranking to see if its season will continue. Check back to TarletonSports.com or visit ITAtennis.com for more information.