SEATTLE – The Texans have had major success in conference matches since joining the WAC, and that continued on Friday in their first trip to Seattle U, winning five-of-six singles matches for a 5-2 team win.
Tarleton (14-6, 6-2 WAC) won their third straight match and improved to 7-3 on the road this year to maintain their No. 2 position in the WAC standings. Since joining the Western Athletic Conference in 2020-21, the Texans are 16-3 in conference matches.
The Redhawks, playing their first match since April 2 due to two weather cancellations, fell to 4-9 overall and 2-4 in the WAC.
Seattle U took the early lead on Friday at the Championship Field Tennis Courts by winning the doubles point, taking matches on Courts 1-2. Elena Kraleva and Liliya Dimova defeated Tarleton's
Martha Makantasi and
Ximena Morales 6-1 in the top flight, then Lola Tavcar and Mireia Fehr beat
Elsa Boisson and
Clara Sobius 6-4 in the No. 2 position. Tarleton salvaged a win on Court 3 by
Celia Vaudiau and
Emma Persson 7-6(3) over Jade Quintana and Marija Elenova.
In singles action, Tarleton got off to a hot start, taking the first set in five of the six matches. They went on to win all five of those matches, first by Morales on Court 4 over Elenova 6-2 6-1. The Texan freshman snapped a three-match slide, improving to 7-10 on the year.
Boisson extended the longest active winning streak on the team to six straight singles wins with a 6-4 6-2 win over Tavcar on Court 3. Boisson still has the best singles record on the team at 14-4 with a 12-3 mark on Courts 2-3.
The Redhawks then tied the team match score at 2-2 with a top flight win by Kraleva 6-4 6-4 over Persson.
But that was the lone singles match that went Seattle U's way, as Tarleton took the final three. Makantasi (8-10) won her second straight singles match with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Dimova on Court 2.
Sobius played in the only three-set match of the day, defeating Fehr 6-4 5-7 7-6(3). The Texan freshman has the tied-most wins on the team with Boisson at 14, owning a 14-6 record.
Vaudiau capped off Tarleton's night with her fifth straight singles victory, improving to 7-4 on the year. She defeated Quintana 6-3 6-2 on Court 6.
Tarleton has one regular season match remaining, with the No. 2 seed in the WAC Women's Tennis Tournament on the line. Due to UT Arlington's shutout of Sam Houston Friday, the Lady Mavericks (7-1) locked up the WAC regular season title. The Texans and UTRGV Vaqueros are both 6-2 in WAC play, with the tiebreaker in favor of the purple and white. Tarleton wraps up the regular season at Utah Tech on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. CT, and UTRGV will finish off vs. Sam Houston on Sunday at 9 a.m. CT.
