The Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown came down to the margins. No. 10 Texas gave No. 5 Texas A&M all it could handle, forcing deciding sets across the lineup but ultimately falling 3-4 on Feb. 22 at Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas.
To begin conference play, Texas coach Howard Joffe used three new doubles teams that Texas hadn’t utilized in the regular season.
On court three, Texas A&M senior Daria Smetannikov and sophomore Lexington Reed defeated Texas sophomores Eszter Meri and Salma Drugdova 6-2 before Texas responded on court two. Longhorns sophomore Carmen Herea and freshman Mathilde Ngijol-Carré defeated Aggie senior Violeta Martinez and freshman Ilinca Amariei, 6-4.
The deciding doubles point went Texas A&M’s way as Texas freshmen Elizabeth Ionescu and Christasha McNeil fell 7-5 to Texas A&M senior Mia Kupres and junior Lucciana Perez.
The singles competition mirrored the doubles as Texas A&M was looking to close in on a 4-0 sweep.
Texas freshman Anastasia Abbagnato, ranked No. 21 in singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, dropped a 6-1, 6-1 decision to Perez, the No. 5-ranked player by the ITA, on court two. Texas A&M gained a 3-0 lead with Texas freshman Kate Mansfield losing to Martinez, 6-2, 6-3. However, it was at this point that the Longhorns started to find their footing away from home.
McNeil opened singles play with aggressive returns, losing the second set 6-0 and regrouping in the third, closing on a four-game run to defeat Reed in three sets. Ionescu steadied a back-and-forth match, defeating Smetannikov 6-4, 7-6 (5) to cut the deficit to 3-2.
The duel came down to two matches, both in third sets. Meri captured the opening set, but Amariei responded by winning the final two sets 6-3, 6-3 to clinch the duel for Texas A&M and the fourth point.
Herea, ranked No. 3 by the ITA, closed the afternoon with one of Texas’ strongest performances, defeating Kupres 6-4, 7-5 for a ranked win that produced the 4-3 final margin.
The result reflected the narrow margins throughout as Texas pushed the doubles point to deuce and won multiple first sets in singles and forced three deciding sets. But the Aggies converted key momentum swings, particularly early in singles play.
Texas hits the road on Feb. 27 to face Missouri, where the Longhorns will look to convert close matches into team results as the schedule intensifies.