EDINBURG, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's and women's tennis teams both endured UTRGV taking the doubles point for an early match lead before outlasting the Vaqueros in singles play to win both matches Thursday in the South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union.
The Islanders took dropping doubles on the chin, as the men (7-0) and women (10-1) both roared back in singles play to overtake UTRGV to go unbeaten on the day. It also extends A&M-Corpus Christi's lead in this year's South Texas Showdown, an institutional rivalry with UTRGV, to 23.0-14.0.
The women have now won 14 straight against the Vaqueros, not having dropped a match to them since the 2018 season. Under head coach
Steve Moore, the women improve to 29-1 over UTRGV while the men are now 27-4 over the Vaqueros.
"This was a battle today, both great college tennis matches!" said Moore. "We had to dig deep today and win from the inside out with heart, guts and fitness! I have big respect for UTRGV and the way both teams fought today. I'm so proud of these Islanders - they chose to take the road of courage and fought until we found a way! I honestly believe these are the matches you win with the fitness you've done since August! You cannot fake the harvest in those moments. You must believe in your legs that you can play physical tennis for five hours, and that's exactly what these Islanders have done through their tough training! It's a tough place to play down at UTRGV, and this team showed great character today. Go Islanders!"
The women were first up and despite
Josefa Fuenzalida and
Leticia Tarocco grinding out a 6-4 victory at No. 2 doubles, UTRGV came away with the doubles point for the 1-0 lead in the match.
However, the Islanders responded fiercely in singles by taking the first set on every court. Sophomore
Ana Veroux showed her leadership by winning at No. 1 singles with a pair of 6-2 sets to even the playing field. Freshman
Juliette Jalai then extended her team-leading win total to a perfect 1-0 singles record with a 7-5, 6-4 victory at the No. 6 position to get the Islanders ahead 2-1.
Tarocco earned the third point of the day for the Islanders, taking care of business on court two with a 6-4, 6-3 victory. UTRGV made it a 3-2 match score, but the deciding point came from Fuenzalida's court as she battled out a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory at No. 5 after going down 3-2 in the third set to fire back with four straight games for the win. Freshman
Kseniya Ramanouskaya then closed out with another point for the Islanders at No. 3 singles.
The men similarly won No. 2 doubles with the pairing of
Nathan Favier and
Omar Suarez but it unfortunately came after UTRGV had already clinched the doubles point to yet again put the Islanders down early.
But just like the women's match, the Islanders didn't take the deficit lightly as they rattled off straight-set singles win at courts four, five, and six to instead go up 3-1 in the match.
Nicholas Niox Chateau wrapped his first with two 6-3 set scores at No. 4 before
Nicolas Trebuchet dug with a 7-6 (8) first set followed by a dominant 6-0 second set at No. 5. Suarez notched his second win of the day with the 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory at No. 6 singles.
Clinching the match was
Harry Fouzas at court three, which came down to a deciding third set after splitting his opponent 6-2, 2-6. It was a slim margin, but Fouzas held true and came away with the 7-5 set three score for the match.
The men will get back in action next on Sunday against Oral Roberts before both teams take on Rice in Houston on Tuesday.
Women's Results // A&M-Corpus Christi 5, UTRGV 2
Doubles (1, 3, 2)
1. Rhea Makesar/Mariia Bakhtina (UTRGV) def.
Kseniya Ramanouskaya/
Yana Mykytyn (AMCC) 6-1
2.
Josefa Fuenzalida/
Leticia Tarocco (AMCC) def. Madeleine Joffe/Hitakamya Narwal (UTRGV) 6-4
3. Valentina Urraco/Kristal Dule (UTRGV) def.
Adriana Jimenez Casado/
Ana Veroux (AMCC) 6-2
Singles (1, 6, 2, 3, 5, 4)
1.
Ana Veroux (AMCC) def. Yaiza Vazquez (UTRGV) 6-2, 6-2
2.
Leticia Tarocco (AMCC) def. Kristal Dule (UTRGV) 6-4, 6-3
3. Rhea Makesar (UTRGV) def.
Yana Mykytyn (AMCC) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
4.
Kseniya Ramanouskaya (AMCC) def. Hitakamya Narwal (UTRGV) 7-5, 6-3
5.
Josefa Fuenzalida (AMCC) def. Madeleine Joffe (UTRGV) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
6.
Juliette Jalai (AMCC) def. Mariia Bakhtina (UTRGV) 7-5, 6-2
Men's Results // A&M-Corpus Christi 4, UTRGV 3
Doubles (1, 3, 2)
1. Santiago Serrano/Loic Young Kriegel (UTRGV) def.
Tom Berry/Charalampos Fouzas (AMCC) 6-1
2.
Nathan Favier/
Omar Suarez (AMCC) def. Sam Whitehead/Paolo Bonaguro (UTRGV) 6-3
3. Eduardo Menezes/Ivo Isqueiro (UTRGV) def.
Josef Zapletal/
Matthieu Coignet (AMCC) 6-4
Singles (4, 5, 6, 3, 1, 2)
1. Sam Whitehead (UTRGV) def.
Nathan Favier (AMCC) 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (8:6)
2. Ivo Isqueiro (UTRGV) def.
Tom Berry (AMCC) 6-7, 6-2, 6-1
3. Charalampos Fouzas (AMCC) def. Will Roberts (UTRGV) 6-2, 2-6, 7-5
4. Nicholas Niox (AMCC) def. Loic Young Kriegel (UTRGV) 6-3, 6-3
5.
Nicolas Trebuchet (AMCC) def. Paolo Bonaguro (UTRGV) 7-6 (10:8), 6-0
6.
Omar Suarez (AMCC) def. Santiago Serrano (UTRGV) 7-6 (7:5), 6-4
A&M-Corpus Christi Tennis
- 17 NCAA Tournaments
- 35 SLC Championships
- 4 Top-40 National Rankings
- 3.0 GPA 43 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
#ShakasUp
