The Texas A&M women’s tennis team aims to get back into the win column during its two-match road swing to the Metroplex this weekend. The Aggies (7-1), who on Wednesday came just short of breaking the school record for best start after falling to Rice, 4-3, in Houston, take on the SMU Mustangs, Saturday at 12 p.m. at the SMU Tennis Complex in Dallas and then make a short trek to Fort Worth to meet the TCU Horned Frogs on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
“We are looking forward to getting right back to work on Saturday against a much improved SMU team and then again against a strong TCU Team on Sunday,” Texas A&M third-year head coach Mark Weaver said. “I am confident in our group that we will bounce back just fine from our very close 4-3 setback with Rice this past Wednesday.”
The Aggies, who were making their first road trip of the season when they took on the Owls, fell behind early after losing two of the three doubles matches. Despite dropping the doubles point for the first time this season, A&M battled in singles and had tied the match at 3-3 before losing a three-set match at No. 6 singles to conclude the match.
Domenica Gonzalez, Macarena Olivares and Riley McQuaid all scored for the Aggies and each improved to 8-0 in dual singles matches. Gonzalez, ranked 87th in singles, won in straight sets at the No. 1 line, and Olivares and McQuaid each came back after dropping their first sets to win in three sets at the Nos. 2 and 4 lines, respectively.
The Aggies are now a combined 41-6 in singles in dual matches only. In addition, A&M is a combined 8-2 in doubles matches.
SMU is 3-3 after defeating Northwestern State, 6-1, on Monday. The Mustangs’ Ana Perez-Lopez is riding a team-best four-match winning streak and is 4-1 in singles dual matches. Anzhelika Shapovalova leads the team in overall singles victories with a 12-8 record. She and Karina Traxler are tied with Perez-Lopez for most wins in dual matches only. Shapovalova and Tiffany Hollebeck lead the Mustangs with a 3-1 record in doubles play in dual matches.
The Mustangs are a combined 17-15 in singles dual matches and 8-7 in dual doubles matches.
SMU is 16-12 against A&M in the all-time series, which begin in 1980. The teams last met last season, with A&M winning, 6-1, at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
TCU, which is receiving votes in the ITA national team rankings, is 6-4 after falling to No. 6 Stanford, 4-0, today in Austin. The Frogs have three players listed in the ITA national singles rankings: No. 85 Aleksa Cveticanin, No. 90 Aleksandra Zenovka and No. 117 Marie Norris. In doubles, Donika Bashota and Elizabeth Tedford are No. 43.
TCU is a combined 26-14 in singles in dual matches only. The Frogs are 13-9 in doubles in dual matches.
A&M has won six of the last seven meeting against TCU and holds a 22-18 lead in the all-time series which began in 1980. A&M defeated then No. 22 TCU, 4-3, last year in College Station.
