Men Win Nine Matches at ITA Regionals, Women Excel at SMU & Lamar

WACO, Texas – Playing at three different locations around the state, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's & women's tennis programs completed a busy weekend at Baylor, SMU and Lamar.
 
At men's ITA Regionals at the Hurd Tennis Center at Baylor, senior Pascal Lorieul, senior Matthieu Peres and junior Avery Zavala all reached the main draw. Lorieul defeated student-athletes from SMU and UTSA in the preliminaries, while Peres qualified with a three-set win over Abilene Christian. Zavala earned a bye straight to the main draw due to his high UTR ranking.
 
The Islanders notched a pair of main draw wins in doubles to reach the round of 32. Zavala and freshman Tomas Quesada Perez edged out an ACU duo 8-7 (6). Senior Ulysse Bertrand and freshman Lucas Schurdevin won 8-3 over UTRGV.
 
Overall, the men won a total of nine matches at ITA Regionals between singles and doubles.
 
On the women's side, junior Valeria Cherfus was crowned the singles champion in Flight A at Lamar after beating LU's Femke Tjon A Joe 7-6 (2), 6-2 in the finals. Cherfus also recorded wins over Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston. In Flight B, senior Victoire Delattre reached the finals after tacking on wins over SFA and Lamar, only falling to Emma Cave from SFA in the championship.
 
In doubles, Cherfus and fellow junior Naomi Moi McKenzie tallied two wins. They beat a Lamar pair 6-2 and an SFA duo 6-3.
 
At SMU, a trio of Islanders won two singles matches. In the first flight, junior Emma Aucagne grinded out a pair of three-set wins over UTSA and Butler; the win over Butler was against the team's No. 1 player Natalie Boesing who holds a 10.1 UTR.

Freshman Palina Saulevich etched victories over North Texas and ACU, and senior Kateryna Rublevska did the same against UIW and UT Arlington.
 
Rublevska won two more matches in doubles with freshman Sofia Pinto as the duo defeated teams from Butler and UTA. In singles, Pinto went toe-to-toe with TCU's Jane Otway only to fall 10-7 in a third-set super tiebreaker.

"We are incredibly proud the way these high character Islanders competed this weekend. Every player did a good job of competing hard with great effort and attitude. There were many matches where players got down and could have tapped out but instead kept fighting every present point and turned it around. Also, very impressed with the heart of this team and their commitment to being a true team. They really cheered and made a difference for each other. Everyone made the choice to wear the family business hard hat, and not one person chose to wear the special prince or princess crown. We're very proud of the heart and character of this team," said head coach Steve Moore. 

Both the men and women will compete at home on Oct. 21-23 in the Islander Open II at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center, presented by Cooper Outdoor Advertising.
 
A&M-Corpus Christi Tennis
- 14 NCAA Tournaments
- 30 SLC Championships
- 4 Top-40 National Rankings
- 3.0 GPA 37 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
 
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