CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It came down to the final courts in both matches, but the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi tennis program was edged twice in a hard-fought doubleheader against UTRGV on Saturday at the Orville Cox Tennis Center, with both the women's and men's teams dropping 4-3 decisions in the South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union.
It marks the women's second-ever loss to the Vaqueros under head coach
Steve Moore, who hold a 31-2 record over UTRGV's women. It was the first time since 2018 the women fell to UTRGV, previously having won the last 16 straight meetings. The men still hold a 29-5 all-time advantage over the Vaqueros under Moore.
Both teams had defeated UTRGV in this season's earlier meetings, though, today's matches were the ones that unfortunately count towards the conference standings as the women move to 12-3 (2-2 SLC) and the men 12-3 (0-1 SLC) on the year.
The women opened the day in a battle that swung back and forth from the outset. After dropping the doubles point despite a dominant 6-1 win at the top flight from
Yana Mykytyn and
Kseniya Ramanouskaya, the Islanders found themselves chasing early.
They answered in singles with resilience. Ramanouskaya delivered a straight-set win at No. 3, and
Josefa Fuenzalida outlasted her opponent in a three-set thriller at No. 5, rallying from a set down and taking a match tiebreak 10-6. Mykytyn added another point in dramatic fashion at No. 2, rebounding from a first-set tiebreak loss to force a third set before her opponent retired.
With the match hanging in the balance, the Islanders battled on multiple courts, but points at No. 1, No. 4 and No. 6 ultimately slipped away. The clincher came in the final wave, as the opposition secured the fourth point to narrowly deny the Islanders after nearly three hours of play.
The men followed with a match that mirrored the intensity, again coming down to the final court.
After falling behind early with the loss of the doubles point — despite a hard-earned 7-5 win from
Ethan Dasset and
Josef Zapletal at No. 3 — the Islanders needed a surge in singles.
Zapletal set the tone with a dominant 6-0, 6-2 victory at No. 5, and Dasset added a composed straight-set win at No. 4.
Etienne Marty put the Islanders within reach of the team victory with a clutch performance at No. 3, winning a first-set tiebreak before closing it out in straight sets.
With the score tied late, momentum hung in the balance on the remaining courts.
Omar Suarez battled back after dropping the first set to force a decider at No. 2, while
Mikel Garmendia pushed to three sets at No. 6. Both matches turned into physical, back-and-forth contests, but the opposition managed to secure the final two points to seal the narrow win.
In both matches, A&M-Corpus Christi showed fight at every position but ultimately came up just short in a pair of 4-3 decisions that could have gone either way. Both teams will look to shake this one off before continuing the conference slate next week.
A&M-Corpus Christi Tennis
- 17 NCAA Tournaments
- 37 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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