THIBODAUX, La. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's tennis team battled back from going down early with a missed doubles point and overtook NJIT in a classic 4-3 semifinals match Friday night to advance to the programs fifth consecutive championship match.
After dropping the doubles point, the Islanders (25-2) entered a dog fight to the finish line as a trip to the finals went to relying on singles play. Needing four courts, it came down to the very last one standing as
Kseniya Ramanouskaya entered a decisive third set at No. 4 singles with a 3-3 tied match.
She won a massive deuce point to go up 4-3 in set three and after NJIT kept it close trailing just 5-4, Ramanouskaya prevented extra games as she aced her opponent for the hold and 6-4 victory to clinch the match.
Her shining moment came after
Yana Mykytyn at court three evened the match at 1-1 with a6-4, 6-2 singles win. Giving the Islanders the match lead was
Leticia Tarocco at No. 1 singles after she finalized a 6-1, 6-3 victory.
The Islanders would go up 3-1 with
Juliette Jalai closing out a 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 5 singles before NJIT would knot the match at 3-all with singles wins at courts two and five to set up Ramanouskaya at court two for the clincher.
The women will now make their fifth straight appearance in the SLC Championship match and 11th all-time. They improve to 27-8 in SLC Tournament matches under Moore and are now 9-2 all-time in semifinal matches.
The Islanders will be fighting for their 16
th conference championship and eighth tournament title on the women's side to extend their stance as one of the winningest programs in the Southland Conference among any sport. They will take on No. 2 SFA tomorrow at 5 p.m., which will be streamed live on ESPN+.
A&M-Corpus Christi Tennis
- 17 NCAA Tournaments
- 36 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
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