ABOUT THE ROADRUNNERS
UTSA comes into Houston on Friday with a 11-10 record, defeating North Texas in their last match, 4-3. Freshman Jasmine Starr leads the team at Flight 1 in both singles and doubles.
ABOUT THE BULLS
Houston welcomes conference rival USF on Sunday with a 10-7 record, DEFEATING OR LOSING AGAINST, 4-3. Senior Ana Roman leads the team at Flight 1 in both singles.
Houston 5, UTSA 2
Doubles Competition
1. Mimi Kendall-Woseley/Elena Tairyan (HOU) vs. Jasmin Starr/Kylee Kato (UTSA) 7-5
2. Sophie Gerits/Ndindi Ndunda (HOU) def. Mariah Plauth/Diya Menon (UTSA) 6-3
3. Charleen Tiwari/Sophie Omoworare (UTSA) def. Phonexay Chitdara/Jovana Vukovic 3-6 (HOU)
Singles Competition
1. Jasmin Starr (UTSA) vs. Ndindi Ndunda (HOU) 5-5
2. Laura Cabrera (UTSA) def. Mimi Kendall-Woseley (HOU) 6-2, 6-1
_3. Sophie Gerits (HOU) def. Kylee Kato (UTSA) 6-4, 6-2 _
4. Elena Tairyan (HOU) def. Mariah Plauth (UTSA) 6-1, 6-3
5. Phonexay Chitdara (HOU) def. Sophie Omoworare (UTSA) 6-3, 6-1
6. Stephanie Belovukovic (HOU) def. Charleen Tiwari (UTSA) 6-0, 6-3
Order of finish: Singles (6, 5, 3, 4, 2) Doubles (3, 2, 1)
“It’s been a long season and today we were able to come together to close this match, which is what we really needed,” said Head Coach Helena Besovic. “This gives us a lot of confidence going into next weekend’s match against Rice, and then playing in the conference tournament.”
The match started and ended with singles play due to the weather. The Cougars snatched the first win of the day at Court 5, where junior Phonexay Chitdara got her 11th singles win of the season rolling through Nicole Dzenga, 6-3, 6-2. The next win came from Stephanie Belovukovic, who beat Alex Mjos, 6-3, 6-3. The freshman from Australia has lost only two singles matches, moving to a winning record of 15-2.
As the Bulls took the wins on Courts 3 and 4, the match became tied, 2-2. Both teams had a break as the storm forced the match to be moved to indoor tennis facility nearby the university.
The next big win came from Mimi Kendall-Woseley who took on Ana Roman at Flight 1, defeating her in two sets, 6-4, 6-4. “The support from the team gave me all the motivation I needed,” explained the junior from Boca-Raton. “I just fought for the team, it wasn’t about myself.”
On the next court, Sophie Gerits remained as the lone and game-deciding match. After coming back from dropping the second set, the freshman from Belgium won the match in a thriller, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6. The Cougars move to 3-0 in conference play, and enjoy a winning record of 14-5 in the season.
By the way, USF was ranked 47th in last week’s ITA rankings so that’s a pretty big win for the squad.
14-5 overall now and I’d say that we are probably better than last year’s team…and this is an entirely different team. Great job by the coaches and players.
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