ARLINGTON, Texas – The No. 2 seed Tarleton Texans made their WAC Tournament debut on Thursday, and what a debut it was.
The Texans (16-6, 7-2 WAC) rolled through four straight singles matches to clinch a 4-1 victory over the No. 7 seed Seattle U Redhawks (4-11, 2-5 WAC), winning their first NCAA Division I conference tournament match in their first opportunity. The Texans are riding a season-long winning streak of five straight matches, and improved to 9-4 away from Stephenville on the year.
"What a fun match that was," head coach
Elianne Douglas-Miron said. "It feels great to make history and win Tarleton's first ever WAC tennis conference tournament match. After losing the doubles point, the girls came out and fought hard to win all the first sets in singles. That gave us incredible momentum. It was an amazing team win and we look forward to being on the courts again tomorrow morning."
Tarleton advances to the WAC Tournament semifinals, where they'll meet the No. 6 seed New Mexico State Aggies on Friday at 9 a.m. CT at the Arlington Tennis Center. The Texans beat the Aggies 4-3 in their lone meeting this season, played on April 8 in Stephenville.
Tarleton kicked off the WAC Tournament at 9 a.m. CT on Thursday, along with Grand Canyon and Abilene Christian, who played on the other side of the Arlington Tennis Center at the same time.
The Redhawks won the doubles point to begin the day with wins on Courts 1-2. The Texans struck first with a win on Court 3 by
Emma Persson and
Clara Sobius 6-3 over Marija Elenova and Jade Quintana. However, Seattle U took the point with a 6-1 win by Liliya Dimova and Elena Kraleva over
Martha Makantasi and
Ximena Morales on Court 1, followed by a 6-3 victory by Mireia Fehr and Lola Tavcar over
Elsa Boisson and
Celia Vaudiau on Court 2.
The Texans, who played three freshmen out of their six-woman lineup, showed no signs of nervousness despite trailing out of the gate. In fact, all six Texans came out and played elite tennis from first serve and on in singles play, winning the first set in every match.
Morales earned the first victory, beating Elenova 6-2 6-2 in the No. 4 position. The Texan freshman won her third straight match and improved to 9-10 on the year.
Makantasi gave the Texans their first lead 2-1 with a 6-2 6-4 win over Dimova on Court 2. The Texan junior improved back to .500 on the season, now 10-10 with four straight wins. She's 6-4 against WAC opponents this year.
Vaudiau won her seventh straight match to put Tarleton a point away from the team win, beating Quintana 6-2 6-4 on Court 6. The Texan senior remains undefeated in her roll of WAC foes this year (5-0), improving to 9-4 overall in her final collegiate campaign.
Boisson clinched the victory on Court 3 6-4 6-4 against Tavcar, winning her eighth straight match, the longest active winning streak for the purple and white. Boisson, who was named to the All-WAC First Team on Wednesday, owns the best record on the Texans at 16-4.
Tarleton looked good in the other two unfinished singles matches as well, likely poised for a 6-1 victory if all matches went the distance. On Court 1, the WAC Player of the Year Persson was tied with Kraleva 6-2 4-6, and on Court 5, 15-6 freshman Sobius was winning 7-6(8-6) 2-4 against Fehr.
The Texans will stay in Arlington for their semifinals match against the Aggies, who went 4-5 in conference play and are now 11-13 overall. There are no tickets required to attend the match, the event is free and open to the public. Tarleton will also live stream the event, found
here, and there will be live scoring, found
here.
The winner between Tarleton and New Mexico State will play the winner between No. 1 seed UT Arlington and No. 4 seed Grand Canyon in the WAC Tournament championship match on Saturday at 9 a.m. CT at the Arlington Tennis Center.
