CORPUS CHRISTI – For the fifth straight year the Texas A&M – Corpus Christi men's tennis program will have an all Islander singles final in the Marco & Co. Catering Islanders Open. Sophomore Kevin Bettendroffer and junior Ricardo Mayagoitia will face each other for the second consecutive year. The Islanders women's team advanced three to the semifinals of the singles draw and two pairs of doubles to the semifinal round in front of 209 people today. Bettendroffer will also be competing in the semifinals of doubles play with teammate Guillaume Rauseo.
"I thought the crowd was great today," Director of Tennis Steve Moore said. "Today was a grind going indoors, outdoors and back indoors. I'm proud of the way the team stayed unified and cheered each other through until the end. Today started at 8 a.m. and even 14 hours later they were cheering Celia through her match as loud as ever. The teams here are very high-level and the competition today was strong. Tomorrow should be an exciting day."
Despite inclement weather that forced the women's team to compete at three different places, the Islanders battled through to advance to the semifinals. Freshman Judit Vives cruised to the semifinals with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Texas-Pan American's Aikaterini Stavrovlaki. She will take on No. 1 seed Miriam Rosell of UTSA tomorrow with the winner set to face either junior Maider Martin or junior Celia Rodriguez. The Islanders' doubles pair will compete against each other in the semifinals after they each secured straight-set wins in the quarterfinals tonight. Martin breezed to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Christine Foote of UT Arlington while Rodriguez edged out UTSA's Nicole Karaklis, 6-3, 7-5. Martin has advanced to the finals of the singles draw the past two years.
In doubles play, Chelsea Horan and Vives teamed up to take an 8-2 win over the Lamar pair of Katya Lapayeva and Anne Spengler. The Islanders' duo will face No. 1 seed Jacoba Junger and Rosell of UTSA. The Islanders tandem of Martin and Rodriguez will also be playing in the semifinal round after they posted an 8-4 win over UTPA's Christel Amsallan and Mariana Ranzahuer. The pair will face Astrid Gehre and Agustina Serio of UTA in the semifinals.
Bettendroffer and Mayagoitia will highlight the men's singles final for the second straight year. Last season, Bettendroffer topped Mayagoitia 6-3, 7-6 (3) in the finals. Bettendroffer, the No. 1 seed, advanced to the finals after posting a 6-1, 6-2 win over No. 7 seed Daniel Echeverry of UTA, and a 6-3, 7-5 close win over teammate Rauseo. No. 2 seed Mayagoitia clinched his way to the finals after edging out a 7-6 (5), 6-1 win over Niko Rajamaki of Lamar. In the semifinals, Mayagoitia topped No. 3 seed Leonard Ivic of Incarnate Word, 7-5, 6-1. After falling behind 5-2 in the first set, Mayagoitia fought his way back to win five straight games to take the first set 7-5.
For the second straight year the No. 1 seed of Bettendroffer and Rauseo have advanced to the semifinals of the doubles draw. Last season the duo downed Harley Pearson and Boburjon Kamijanov of UTSA, 8-4, in the finals. The duo fought their way to the semifinals this season with an 8-5 win over Etahn Ammon and Juan Cruz-Soria of UTPA. The two will face the No. 4 seed Koby Jansen and Hector Ramirez of UTPA. The winner will face the winner of the semifinal match between Carlos Arbiza and Echeverry of UTA, and Ivic and Josip Smoljan of Incarnate Word.
Sunday's action will begin at 9 a.m. with the doubles semifinals, followed by the doubles finals at 10:30 a.m. The women's singles semifinals will follow before both finals get underway at approximately 1 p.m. All matches are scheduled to be played at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center.
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