STEPHENVILLE, Texas – After the much-anticipated wait, the Texans made their home debut on home sand on Friday.
The Texans (1-5) had great support from Texan Nation but ultimately fell to the Javelinas of Texas A&M Kingsville (12-5) 4-1 in both matches of the doubleheader.
Tarleton State did find success from two different pairs on the day in separate matches in
Breanna McDonough/Grayson Shirpik and
Emma Halcomb/
Allison Bryant.
Tarleton State 1 Texas A&M Kingsville 4
The Texans got things underway just after 9 a.m. on Friday morning playing their first home match ever in front of a nice showing of Texan Nation.
McDonough and Shirpik earned Tarleton State's lone point of the match going three sets for the first of two times on the day on Court 2. The pair went down 0-1 early dropping set one 15-21 before winning sets two and three putting their names in the record books as the first Texans to win on home sand. The pair fired off 21-18 and 15-11 set wins to come out victorious over Grace Gettys and Adrienne Van Brunt.
On Court 1, Halcomb and Bryant fell in straight sets to the Javelinas Rylan Pollard and Kalani Vasquez 22-20 and 21-17. Court 3 saw
Sydney Garrison and
Rajini Fitzmaurice go down to Kingsville's Olivia Zeigler and Madelyn Wallace 21-12 and 21-14 in straight sets.
Isabel Gonzaba and Melina Ortiz Maldonado got the start on Court 4 falling to the Javelinas Liana Huesca and Taylor McCarthy in straight sets 21-15 and 21-12. The final pair of Texans was
Charlize Ching and
Tatum Busch who fell 21-17 and 21-19 to Meghan Siefer and Rylie Anderson of Kingsville.
Tarleton State 1 Texas A&M Kingsville 4
Match 2 of the day saw Halcomb and Bryant earn a straight sets win over Pollard and Vasquez 21-18 and 21-19. This marked the Texans' only point of the match.
McDonough and Schirpik once again went three sets, this time falling 21-15, 20-22 and 15-11 to Van Brunt and Gettys. Fitzmaurice and Garrison fell in straight sets to Wallace and Zeigler 21-15 and 21-13.
The final two pairs for the Texans fell in straight sets closing out the Texans home debut. Gonzaba and Maldonado Ortiz fell 21-8, 21-18 to McCarthy and Huesca. Busch and Ching fell to Stiefer and Anderson 21-15 and 21-9.
The Texans will be back in action next Friday-Saturday at the ULM Beach Invitational in Monroe, Louisiana. The Texans will play four matches across the two days.
They will open with Hendrix College on Friday at 9 a.m. and then take on host ULM at 2:30 p.m. to wrap up Day 1. Tarleton State will then face off with Eastern Kentucky on Saturday morning at 10:45 a.m. and will close out their portion of the ULM Beach Invitational with a match featuring the Bears of Central Arkansas.
