NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Following a pair of Southland Conference Semifinal victories on Saturday, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's and women's tennis teams will have a chance to repeat what they accomplished back in 2014 as both will play for the league title on Sunday in Nacogdoches.
RELATED: Men's Results (pdf) | Women's Results (pdf) | Men's Photos | Women's Photos | Highlights/Interviews
Two seasons ago the women's squad won its first Southland Tournament title, while the men earned its seventh of eight overall. The Islander men have a chance on Sunday to win their fourth in a row and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time.
"This is the best week of the year," Director of Tennis Steve Moore said following both matches. "It's what you train for all year. You train for ninth months to earn the right to believe in this moment. It's about fighting and fitness more than it is about tennis. It can almost be another sport at this point. It's about encouragement. It's about dealing with pressure. I'm so proud of the way they did those things. I'm so proud of how they paid the price."
The No. 2 Islander men (16-8) started things off with a semifinal matchup against No. 3 New Orleans, earning the first four points to clinch the victory early. The Blue and Green will take on top seeded Lamar in the championship Sunday at 11 a.m.
Ricardo Mayagoitia and Javier Pujol won 6-3 in number three doubles to get things going for the Islanders. Guillaume Rauseo and Paul Cook, after falling behind 4-0, won six straight games to win 6-4 on court two and clinch the doubles point for the Blue and Green.
"At 4-0, I looked at Paul and said 'we can win every single game. Let's bring the energy and do it.' We went crazy every point and we did it," Rauseo said. "The whole team is really happy. This is the first step of the journey."
In singles it was Carlos Pedrosa Cuevas getting A&M-Corpus Christi on the board first, cruising to a 6-0, 6-1 victory at the number six position. Rauseo then won 6-3, 6-4 on court four to make it 3-0 in favor of the Islanders.
Mayagoitia earned the clinching victory, winning 6-3, 6-2 at the number two position to make it a 4-0 final. Cook and Pujol had both won their first set before the match was called.
"They brought a lot of energy at the beginning," Moore said of the men. "Certain guys have improved a lot over the last three or four weeks. It's about movement and toughness now. They've worked really hard to be fit in this moment and have their legs balanced behind the ball for three or four hours. It paid off for them today."
It was then the women's turn. It didn't come quite as easily. The top seeded Islanders (23-0) started smoothly, winning two doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead over No. 4 McNeese State. Celia Rodriguez and Maider Martin cruised to a 6-1 win, before Hortense Boscher and Alexandra Belle clinched the point with a 6-3 victory.
That's when it got interesting.
McNeese State won three straight singles matches to take a 3-1 lead. The Cowgirls won at three, four and five to nearly put it out of reach for the Islanders.
With their backs against the wall, and needing to win the final three matches, the Islanders fought. Kerry Galhos made it 3-2 when she won 6-3, 6-3 at the number six position. Jelena Dzinic then tied things up at 3-3 with a 6-3, 6-4 victory on court two.
It came down to the top singles players for both teams. For the Cowgirls it was two-time Southland Conference Player of the Year Klaudia Gawlik. Gawlik, who was ranked as high as 599th on the professional tour before making her way to McNeese State, didn't play when the Islanders won 4-3 in Lake Charles earlier this season.
For A&M-Corpus Christi it was first-year Islander and 2016 Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year Hortense Boscher.
Gawlik won the first set 6-2 and led 2-0 in set number two. Boscher didn't back down. She came back to win the second set 6-3 and forced a third and deciding stanza.
The sophomore battled. With Dzinic tying up the match at 3-3 on the court next to hers, and the scoreboard right behind her the entire afternoon, Boscher took it upon herself to lift the Islanders to the championship match.
"I tried to stay focused and believe," Bsocher said. "I kept putting pressure on her and brought energy. That went my way in the end, so I'm really happy."
She scrapped and clawed her way to a 6-3 final set victory and gave the Blue and Green a 4-3 win and a chance to win a second tournament title in the last three years.
"Two teams deserved to win this match," Moore said. "McNeese is an unbelievably high level team. Klaudia Gawlik has been one of the superstars in the history of this conference. We're down 6-2, 2-0 to her and Hortense starts fighting back with her legs and her fitness. Once that match got to three sets, I really believed in Hortense a lot, because she's really earned the right to believe with all of her discipline and her extra workouts. It paid off in this big moment. It's very fulfilling to see someone who's worked as hard as that girl, to see her hard work validated."
Both the men's and women's teams will have a chance to win the Southland Conference title on Sunday. The men will play Lamar at 11 a.m., while the women will take on Northwestern State at 2 p.m.
"I will say that this group has earned the right to believe," Moore said. "We're going to go out tomorrow and stay in the present. We'll play each present point with intensity, not think about results and encourage each other like the biggest encouraging family in the country and see what happens."
Photos by Hardy Meredith
