STEPHENVILLE – Surprise, surprise, the Texans won yet again.
Make it six straight match wins for the Tarleton Texans tennis team, their longest winning streak in eight years, since Feb. 22 through March 21, 2014 (seven straight). This is also their second straight sweep, their first such run since March 22-23, 2019. It’s Tarleton’s third sweep in their last four matches and fourth sweep of the season in nine matches.
Tarleton improved to 7-2 with their 7-0 win over UTRGV at the Potishman-Lard Tennis Courts in Stephenville on Sunday. This is their best start to a season through the first nine matches in six years, since 2015-16. This week, the Texans rolled through all four of their home matches, outscoring opponents 26-2.
To start Sunday, Tarleton won the doubles points for the fourth straight match. The only negative part of the day was the fact that the Texans’ top pair was finally defeated. Deniza Marcinkevica and Jemi Aguilar suffered their first loss of the season, now 6-1, with a 5-7 loss to UTRGV’s Lea Karren and Isabelle Bahr. Tarleton’s other pairs picked them up, however, with Faustine Palatte and Celia Vaudiau winning 6-3 over Barbara Martinez and Marjorie Souza at No. 2, and Martha Makantasi and Elsa Boisson winning 6-4 over Sandra Putz and Kristyna Mamicova at No. 3.
Makantasi had an unbelievable week, capping it off with yet another singles sweep of 6-0, 6-0 over Lea at No. 3. If she doesn’t win Western Athletic Conference Singles Athlete of the Week, there will be an uproar from the purple and white, because this week alone, Makantasi went 4-0 in singles, 3-0 at No. 3, 1-0 at No. 1, with three 6-0, 6-0 sweeps. Overall, she won 48 out of 51 games. Repeat – she won 48 out of 51 games.
Like the team, Makantasi has an individual six-match winning streak at singles, now 7-2 on the season. She also went 4-0 in doubles with Boisson, so Makantasi won all eight of the matches she was involved in.
Vaudiau won her seventh straight singles match to improve to a team-best 7-1 record. She defeated Mamicova 6-1, 6-1. She won all four of her matches in straight sets this week.
At No. 1, Marcinkevica got back on track with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Bahr to improve to 5-3. At No. 2, Aguilar won her third straight match to get back to .500 at singles, now 4-4 with her 5-7, 6-2 [10-6] win over Souza. Boisson won her sixth straight match to get to 7-2 with her 6-3, 7-5 win over Martinez at No. 5. Finally, at No. 6, Natalia Komar won her second straight singles match with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Putz.
Tarleton now leaves Stephenville, where they’re 4-0, for four straight matches away from home, two technical road matches and two neutral sites. Next up is a match at Louisiana Tech on Monday, Feb. 28, at 2 p.m. CT.
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