Freshman Natalia Gonzalez returns a shot during a match against Abilene Christian University on March 20 at the UTA Tennis Center. Gonzalez lost her singles match 2-1.
UTA women’s tennis (4-10) won 5-2 over Abilene Christian University (7-10) Friday at the UTA Tennis Center.
Abilene Christian, like UTA, plays in the Western Athletic Conference for women’s tennis. The two squads will meet again in less than two weeks, and likely at the WAC tournament.
“It’s a big rival of us, and we love it,” head coach Diego Benitez said. “We play each other all the time. We’ve been in the same conference so many times — the Southland, the Sun Belt, here. It is great to be having a rivalry with them, and we’re going to stick with them when we go next year to the UAC [United Athletic Conference].”
Graduate student Elizaveta Mladentseva returns a shot during a match against Abilene Christian University on March 20 at the UTA Tennis Center. Mladentseva lost her singles match.
Doubles play opened with freshmen Flora Farkaslaki and Diana Kaibara winning 6-1. The other freshman duo, Natalia Gonzalez and Tasnime Ahamout, finished the doubles sweep with a 6-2 win.
“The girls got the first set, so it was pretty relaxing in a way, somehow. But we still had to lock in and clinch the doubles point,” Ahamout said. “Me and Nati, we had the great energy, such a positive energy. We just got it there and finished the match.”
Graduate student Elizaveta Mladentseva and freshman Sofia Selle’s match went unfinished as Abilene Christian led 4-3. The match was the third time all year UTA exited doubles play with a 1-0 lead and the second time in two weeks.
“It’s a process. We knew it’s going to take a while,” Benitez said. “A lot of our players didn’t play that much doubles coming into college. In the juniors, ITA, there’s not much of that. We needed to go little by little and explain the plays and put the reps in.”
Freshman Sofia Selle returns a shot during a match against Abilene Christian University on March 20 at the UTA Tennis Center. Selle rallied to win her singles match 2-1 after dropping the opening set.
Abilene Christian tied the match in the first set of singles play, sweeping Mladentseva. Kaibara and Ahamout countered with a sweep of their opponents, so UTA just had to win one of the three matchups that went to a third set.
The first of the third sets to finish was Gonzalez’s 6-4 loss, putting the match within one point. Selle then clinched the Mavericks’ victory with a 6-4 win of her own. A 7-5 win by Farkaslaki closed the game.
“The last point, I just didn’t think about anything. I was just focused about hitting the ball and be as offensive as possible, and it worked,” Selle said.
Benitez said he was proud of the team’s resilience in the match, saying that it proves just how far the majority-freshman squad has grown throughout the year.
Graduate student Elizaveta Mladentseva and freshman Sofia Selle celebrate a point during a match against Abilene Christian University on March 20 at the UTA Tennis Center. The duo left their doubles match unfinished.
“They’re getting to the point that they’re refusing to lose, and that’s really great to see. I mean, against Abilene Christian, they’re a tough team,” Benitez said. “We got the best end of the stick today. It could have gone either way with them today also, so we know that.”
The Mavericks will stay home to face California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the UTA Tennis Center.
“I’m just hoping that we carry on the momentum. Very glad to host Cal Poly here at home, and we just hope that we carry with the same momentum and the same intensity in doubles,” Benitez said.
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