Norman, Okla. \u2013 No. 8 Texas Women’s Tennis advanced to the SEC Championship quarterfinals with a 4-0 sweep of 12 seed No. 55 Alabama on Thursday at the Headington Family Tennis Center in Norman, Okla. The fifth-seeded Longhorns will next face 4 seed No. 1 Georgia on Friday at 6 p.m. CT.<\/p>\n
Texas secured the doubles point with wins at Nos. 3 and 1 around a win by Alabama at No. 2. The Longhorns then followed with singles victories by sophomores No. 3 Carmen Herea<\/a> at No. 1, and No. 50 Eszter Meri<\/a> at No. 3, and freshman No. 6 Anastasia Abbagnato<\/a> at No. 2 for the clinch.<\/p>\n Texas was without freshman Christasha McNeil<\/a> due to injury, which shifted the doubles lineup, but sophomore Salma Drugdova<\/a> paired with Meri, and the duo was first off the court with a 6-3 win over Addison Bowman and Mary Sidelnyk at No. 3. Herea and freshman Mathilde Ngijol-Carr\u00e9 then moved up to No. 2 but came up short in back-and-forth match, 6-4, to Maria Andienko and Amina Salibayeva. That left it to No. 1, where Abbagnato and freshman Elizabeth Ionescu<\/a> partnered for a 7-5 victory over Karla Bartel and Klara Milicevic to clinch the points.<\/p>\n Herea was then quickly the first off the singles court with a 6-1, 6-1 top-80 victory over No. 78 Milicevic at No. 1. Meri was also efficient in her win, 6-1, 6-0, over Bartel at No. 3 to extend the lead to 3-0, and Abbagnato made it a trio of decisive victories with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Andienko at No. 2 for the clinch.<\/p>\n Three matches remained unfinished with Ngijol-Carr\u00e9 and freshman Kate Mansfield<\/a> both holding a set lead in their contests. Ngijol-Carr\u00e9 led Salibayeva, 6-2, 3-2, at No. 5, while Mansfield was up, 6-2, 1-5, against Sidelnyk at No. 6. The only set of the night for Alabama was won at No. 4 where Ionescu had a deuce point to break and go to a tiebreaker, but Bowman managed to hold and had a 7-5, 1-0 lead when play stopped.<\/p>\n #8 Texas 4, #55 Alabama 0<\/p>\n Singles \u2013 Order of Finish (1,3,2) Doubles \u2013 Order of Finish (3,2,1) Individual Match Key Moments Doubles No. 3: Drugdova\/Meri (TEX) def. Bowman\/Mary Sidelnyk (ALA) 6-3 Doubles No. 2: Andienko\/Salibayeva (ALA) def. Herea\/Ngijol-Carr\u00e9 (TEX) 6-4 Doubles No. 1: Abbagnato\/Ionescu (TEX) def. Bartel\/Milicevic (ALA) 7-5 Singles No. 1: Herea (TEX) def. Milicevic (ALA) 6-1, 6-1 Singles No. 3: Meri (TEX) def. Bartel (ALA) 6-1, 6-0 Singles No. 2: Abbagnato (TEX) def. Andienko (ALA) 6-3, 6-1 Singles No. 4: Ionescu (TEX) vs. Bowman (ALA) 5-7, 0-1, unf. Singles No. 5: Ngijol-Carr\u00e9 (TEX) vs. Salibayeva (ALA) 6-2, 3-2, unf. Singles No. 6: Mansfield (TEX) vs. Sidelnyk (ALA) 6-2, 1-5, unf.
\n1. #3 Carmen Herea<\/a> (TEX) def. #78 Klara Milicevic (ALA) 6-1, 6-1
\n2. #6 Anastasia Abbagnato<\/a> (TEX) def. Maria Andienko (ALA) 6-3, 6-1
\n3. #50 Eszter Meri<\/a> (TEX) def. Karla Bartel (ALA) 6-1, 6-0
\n4. Elizabeth Ionescu<\/a> (TEX) vs. Addison Bowman (ALA) 5-7, 0-1, unf.
\n5. Mathilde Ngijol-Carr\u00e9 (TEX) vs. Amina Salibayeva (ALA) 6-2, 3-2, unf.
\n6. Kate Mansfield<\/a> (TEX) vs. Mary Sidelnyk (ALA) 6-2, 1-5, unf.<\/p>\n
\n1. Anastasia Abbagnato<\/a>\/Elizabeth Ionescu<\/a> (TEX) def. Karla Bartel\/Klara Milicevic (ALA) 7-5
\n2. Maria Andienko\/Amina Salibayeva (ALA) def. Carmen Herea<\/a>\/Mathilde Ngijol-Carr\u00e9 (TEX) 6-4
\n3. Salma Drugdova<\/a>\/Eszter Meri<\/a> (TEX) def. Addison Bowman\/Mary Sidelnyk (ALA) 6-3<\/p>\n
\n(by order of finish)<\/p>\n
\nMatch:\u00a0Texas earned the only break for 4-2 and had a match point at deuce up 5-2, but Alabama held and the Longhorns served out in the next game.<\/p>\n
\nMatch:\u00a0Alabama started on a 3-0 run with two breaks, including the last two games at deuce. Texas went on a 4-0 run for the lead capped by a deuce-point hold, but the Crimson Tide broke again for a 5-4 lead and served out the match.<\/p>\n
\nMatch:\u00a0Texas held at deuce to start with a 3-0 run. Alabama held at deuce and broke for 3-2, and although the Longhorns broke again, the Crimson Tide won consecutive deuce points for 4-4. Texas later broke for 7-5 and the match.<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0Herea held at deuce to start, and after Milicevic also held, Herea swept the rest of the set.\u00a0
\nSet Two:\u00a0Herea opened with consecutive deuce points and a 4-0 run, completing an overall 9-0 run. Milicevic held in the next game, but two games later, Herea broke at deuce for the match.<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0Meri began on a 5-0 run, holding at deuce for 3-0. She allowed only a deuce-point hold in the set for 5-1.
\nSet Two:\u00a0Meri swept the second set with deuce-point holds for 1-0 and 3-0.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0Andienko borke at deuce in the first game, but Abbagnato broke back to start a 3-0 run. Andienko broke and then held at deuce for 3-3, but Abbagnato finished 3-0.
\nSet Two:\u00a0Abbagnato broke and then held at deuce for 2-0, and after Andienko held at deuce for 2-1, Abbagnato\u00a0\u00a0closed on a 4-0 run.<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0After three-straight breaks, Bowan held for a 4-2 lead. Ionescu won consecutive deuce points for 4-4, but the players exchanged three-straight breaks for a 6-5 lead for Bowman. Ionescu had a break chance at deuce in the next game, but Bowman held for the set.\u00a0
\nSet Two:\u00a0Bowman won the hold game on a deuce-point break.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0Ngijol-Carr\u00e9 broke first for 2-0, and after Salibayeva broke back at deuce and held for 2-2, Ngijol-Carr\u00e9 went on a 4-0 run with deuce-points for a break for 4-2 and hold for 5-2.
\nSet Two:\u00a0Salibayeva broke to start, but Ngijol-Carr\u00e9 broke back. The last three games were on serve with the final two won at deuce.<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0Mansfield broke for 1-0, and after Sidelnyk held at deuce for 2-1, Mansfield broke again for 4-1. Sidelnyk broke back, but so did the Longhorns.
\nSet Two:\u00a0Sidelnyk started 2-0 and ended on a 3-0 run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norman, Okla. \u2013 No. 8 Texas Women’s Tennis advanced to the SEC Championship quarterfinals with a 4-0 sweep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-253803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}