STEPHENVILLE, Texas – Even with a revamped roster that contains six underclassmen, Tarleton is one of the top teams in the Western Athletic Conference yet again.
With the Texans' 4-3 win over New Mexico State on Saturday in Stephenville, they moved to second in the WAC standings at 5-2, just a match behind UT Arlington (6-1). At 5-2, Tarleton is tied with UTRGV, but the purple and white own the tiebreaker due to their head-to-head win on March 17.
Tarleton wrapped up their home portion 7-2 in the 2022-23 season, and now sit at 13-6 overall. They dropped the Aggies to 10-11 overall and 4-4 in WAC play.
The Texans began Saturday's match by honoring their lone senior,
Celia Vaudiau, with a pre-match celebration.
The aftereffects of nostalgia must have lingered, as New Mexico State won the doubles point after taking all three doubles matches. NMSU's Anna Pinaieva and Lisa Zhu defeated
Martha Makantasi and
Elsa Boisson 6-3 at No. 1, Miranda Bishard and Bella Nguyen defeated Vaudiau and
Ximena Morales 6-1 at No. 2, and Dora Kurdi and Valeriia Ivanovskaia defeated
Emma Persson and
Clara Sobius 7-6(8-6) at No. 3.
The Texans recovered though and jumped out to a hot start in singles play, winning the first set in all six matches, appearing poised to cruise to a 6-1 victory.
Three singles matches finished with Tarleton winning comfortably, beginning with Sobius over Nguyen 6-0 6-1 on Court 5. The Texan freshman improved to 13-6 in singles play, 4-1 on Courts 4-5. She has the tied-most singles wins on the team with Persson and Boisson.
Vaudiau, playing her final singles home match in her collegiate career, knocked off Kurdi 6-1 6-3. It was a 2-0 week for Vaudiau, who had the match clincher in a winner-take-all scenario on Thursday, and her win on Saturday was necessary for Tarleton to win overall. She's now 6-4 in singles this season.
Makantasi snapped a two-match slide with a 7-5 6-1 win on Court 2 over Zhu to make it 3-1 Tarleton on the team leaderboard.
In the other three matches, the Aggies refused to go quietly. They forced a third set on Courts 1, 3 and 4, and for quite a while it was unclear who was going to take the conference contest. But Boisson clinched in the next result, upending Ivanovskaia 6-3 4-6 7-5 on Court 3. The Texan junior now owns the best singles record on the team at 13-4 and has the longest active winning streak at five straight.
The Aggies won the final two singles matches. Bishard defeated Morales 1-6 6-4 6-2 on Court 4, and Pinaieva beat Persson in a top flight thriller 3-6 7-5 7-6(4).
With just a week left of the regular season, Tarleton needs to go 2-0 and UT Arlington 0-2 for the Texans to win the WAC regular season title ahead of the WAC Women's Tennis Tournament April 27-29. The Texans will play at Seattle U on Friday at 4:30 p.m. CT and then at Utah Tech on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. CT. The Lady Mavericks will host Sam Houston on Friday at 1 p.m. CT and then are home against Stephen F. Austin on Sunday at 11 a.m. CT.
