STEPHENVILLE, Texas – Thursday marked one of
Celia Vaudiau's last home matches in her Tarleton career, and she came through for her team when they needed it the most.
The Texan senior stormed back from a 5-2 second set deficit in a winner-take-all singles match on Court 6 to win 7-5 7-5, lifting Tarleton to a 4-3 win over Grand Canyon in Stephenville.
The Texans improved to 12-6 overall and 4-2 in WAC play this season with their second straight win over GCU, now 2-1 in the series history. This was the second-to-last home match for the Texans this season, where they're now 6-2 on the year. The Lopes dropped to 10-9 overall and 4-3 in conference matches with the loss.
"That was a special battle on the courts today," head coach
Elianne Douglas-Miron said. "For Celia to clinch a conference match on senior weekend is very special. GCU was very tough. We brought our 'A' game and fought until the very last point. I'm very happy with how we competed and battled on most courts. We have one more home match for the year and hopefully we bring the same energy on Saturday."
The doubles point proved pivotal on Thursday, which went the Texans' way even though they dropped the first match in the top flight. GCU's Natasha Puehse and Santa Strombacha defeated
Martha Makantasi and
Elsa Boisson 6-1, but Tarleton took the other two doubles matches. On Court 3,
Emma Persson and
Clara Sobius beat Dania Deaifi and Valentina Del Marco 6-4, then Tarleton's Vaudiau and
Ximena Morales took down Madeline Lamoreaux and Hebe Toyos 6-4. For Persson and Sobius, that's back-to-back wins for the pair. For Vaudiau and Morales, it was their first time playing together this season.
In singles, Boisson cruised to make it 2-0 on the team leaderboard, rolling Deaifi in straight sets at the No. 3 position 6-3 6-1. The Texan junior is just a win shy of the best singles record on the team, now 12-4 this year, 9-3 on Court 3.
GCU then got consecutive singles victories to even the score at 2-2. Strombacha avenged her loss at the hands of Makantasi last year with a 6-0 6-3 win on Court 2 over the Texan junior this year. In the No. 4 match, Lamoreaux defeated Morales 6-3 6-3.
Sobius won on Court 5 to put Tarleton one singles win away from the team win. She earned a straight-sets victory over Del Marco 6-4 6-2 to improve to 12-6 this season, 3-1 on Courts 4-5.
In the top flight, GCU's Puehse held off Persson in a second set tiebreaker, winning 6-3 7-6(3).
With the team score even at 3-3, Vaudiau was down 2-5 in the second set after winning a narrow first set 7-5 against Toyos. With all eyes on Court 6, the Texan senior had one of her brightest career moments on senior weekend, rallying to win five straight games to win the match in straight sets 7-5 7-5. It was Vaudiau's first match played since March 11, improving to 5-4 on the year.
Tarleton is now third in the WAC standings at 4-2, just a match behind UT Arlington and UTRGV, who square off on Saturday. Next up for the Texans is their final home match of the season on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT. They'll take on New Mexico State (10-10, 4-3 WAC) on Senior Day, where the purple and white will celebrate their lone senior, Vaudiau.
