Texas A&M senior Macarena Olivares went 3-0 in singles and the senior duo of Domenica Gonzalez and Eva Paalma went 3-0 in doubles to highlight the Aggie women’s tennis team’s performance at the Weinman Foundation Invitational at the UH Tennis Complex. The event marked the Aggies’ final tune-up before opening the dual match season on Saturday with a doubleheader against UTRGV and Prairie View A&M at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
“Overall we had a lot of very competitive matches, which is exactly what we need as we prepare for our opening day doubleheader on January 13th,” A&M head coach Mark Weaver said. “We will no doubt be ahead of the game as the season is quickly approaching.
“Eva and Domenica going undefeated and winning the No. 1 flight in doubles, as well as Macarena going undefeated and winning the No. 2 singles flight was very impressive to say the least. It was also nice to see Domenica back for her first singles match in more than six months since her foot surgery. She played at a very high level and almost went undefeated other than a very close singles match on the first day. Eva also played an incredible singles match on the last day as well, which was very encouraging to see.”
Texas A&M opened singles play against 11th-ranked California and won three of six flights. Olivares and freshmen Riley McQuaid and Iulia Ivascu all picked up wins for the Aggies, with Olivares playing the No. 2 flight and McQuaid and Ivascu competing in the No. 5 and No. 6 flights, respectively.
A&M also posted a 3-3 record against the host Rainbow Wahine, with Gonzalez, who was coming off a closely contested 7-6, 2-6, 10-6 loss to 27th-ranked Anna Bright of California, Olivares and Paalma posting wins in the top three flights. McQuaid nearly picked up a fourth win but narrowly dropped a 6-4, 2-6, 11-9 decision against Michelle Pits in a match that was interrupted by rain.
The three seniors also posted singles victories against TCU as the Aggies once again went 3-3. Gonzalez and Paalma both registered ranked victories, with Gonzalez defeating 59th-ranked Aleksandra Zenovka, 6-0, 6-2, at the No. 1 flight and Paalma topping 71st-ranked Aleksa Cveticanin, 6-0, 1-6, 6-4 at No. 3.
In doubles, while Gonzalez and Paalma went undefeated competing in the No. 1 flight, the Aggies were unable to muster a win at the other two flights against California, Hawaii and TCU as Weaver experimented with a different lineup at each position every day.
A&M opens the dual match season Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at noon against UTRGV at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The Aggies return to the courts at 4 p.m. to take on Prairie View A&M.
