HOUSTON – Handing Sam Houston its first conference loss of the year, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's tennis program notched a big 4-3 victory Tuesday on a neutral court at Rice University.
With the win, A&M-Corpus Christi (17-2, 7-1 SLC) moves into a three-way tie for first-place with SHSU and New Orleans. All three teams have just one conference loss, but the Islanders hold the tiebreaker over the Bearkats. A&M-Corpus Christi plays UNO next on Friday.
"Today was a back-and-forth battle against a high-level opponent. An up-and-down battle for four hours. I give our girls a lot of credit because they dug in and found away. It wasn't pretty but they kept chopping wood and found a way. They really rose up when they needed to and grinded this out, and that takes tremendous heart, guts, and character. I think for the first time all year fitness made sense to them because that's what it was all about in the third sets. Their fitness paid off," said head coach
Steve Moore.
The doubles point turned out to be the key to the match. On the top court, the sophomore duo of
Mariya Shumeika and
Camille Townsend won 6-3. The deciding match came on court two where freshmen
Emma Aucagne and
Emma Honore gutted out a clutch 7-5 victory.
In singles, the Islanders won a pair of quick matches at No. 4 and 5. Aucagne tallied her second win of the day with a 6-2, 6-2 result at No. 4. Freshman
Leopoldine Boisseau cruised to a 6-4, 6-0 win at No. 5. It was the 10th consecutive singles win for both Aucagne and Boisseau.
The clinching match came at No. 6. After finding herself down a set, freshman
Victoire Delattre rallied back for a 6-7, 6-4, 6-0 victory.
The Islanders gave the Bearkats their first loss since Jan. 31. A&M-Corpus Christi improved to 12-8 all-time against SHSU.
Tuesday was a rescheduled match from March 14 that was postponed due to weather. Since SHSU had already made the trip, by rule, the two teams met at a midway destination.
A&M-Corpus Christi will be on the road this weekend. It travels to New Orleans for an 11 a.m. Friday match before heading to Nicholls for a 1 p.m. Sunday contest. If the Islanders win both matches, they would win the regular season championship pending a postponed match against Incarnate Word.
A&M-Corpus Christi Tennis
- 11 NCAA Tournaments
- 25 SLC Championships
- 4 Top-40 National Rankings
- 3.0 GPA 31 Straight Semesters
- Islanders have received a No. 3 seed at the NCAA Tournament three times
- Women's tennis has cracked the ITA top-75 national rankings three times
- Men's tennis has cracked the ITA national rankings 10 consecutive years
- Ranked nationally in NCAA DI as high as No. 35 for the men and No. 60 for the women
A&M-Corpus Christi 4, SHSU 3
Doubles Competition
1.
Camille Townsend/
Mariya Shumeika (AMCC) def. Sahaja Yamalapalli/Sahithi Vutukuru (SHSU) 6-3
2.
Emma Aucagne/
Emma Honore (AMCC) def. Constandena Nicolaou/Andrijana Brkic (SHSU) 7-5
3. Petra Kaszas/Karla Montalvo (SHSU) def.
Leopoldine Boisseau/
Kateryna Rublevska (AMCC) 6-4
Singles Competition
1. Sahaja Yamalapalli (SHSU) def.
Mariya Shumeika (AMCC) 6-3, 6-3
2. Karla Montalvo (SHSU) def.
Camille Townsend (AMCC) 6-1, 6-1
3. Isidora Zivkovic (SHSU) def.
Emma Honore (AMCC) 3-6, 7-6, 7-6
4.
Emma Aucagne (AMCC) def. Sahithi Vutukuru (SHSU) 6-4, 6-0
5.
Leopoldine Boisseau (AMCC) def. Andrijana Brkic (SHSU) 6-2, 6-2
6.
Victoire Delattre (AMCC) def. Sunskrithi Damera (SHSU) 6-7, 6-4, 6-0
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