RUSTON, La. – It was a tale of two matches in Ruston, Louisiana, matching Tarleton’s opponents in the doubleheader. In the first match, Louisiana Tech entered with an eight-match winning streak. In the second match, Grambling State entered with an eight-match losing streak.
Both streaks remained intact, with Tarleton losing a highly competitive match to LA Tech 2-4, followed up by a 4-0 sweep of Grambling State at the LA Tech Tennis Complex on Monday.
Tarleton’s own six-match winning streak came to an end against the Lady Techsters, but they went down fighting. It started a bit rough, with two defeats via sweeps in doubles – Faustine Palatte and Celia Vaudiau lost 0-6 to Najah Dawson and Ilana Tetruashvili at No. 2, and Elsa Boisson and Martha Maktantasi lost 0-6 to Olga Bienzobas and Alexia Romero at No. 3. Tarleton’s No. 1 pair, Deniza Marcinkevica and Jemi Aguilar, was leading 4-2 against Leonie Schuknect and Ana Rodrigues before the match was discontinued with the doubles point decided.
In singles, three of the six matches went the distance, and the other three finished in straight sets, two going to Tarleton. Natalia Komar put the Texans on the board in the No. 6 position with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Rodrigues, LA Tech’s former No. 3 player. Komar has now won three straight matches after starting 1-5, improving to 4-5 on the season.
The Lady Techsters went back up a point to 2-1 following a rare loss by Makantasi, 3-6, 4-6 to Dawson at No. 3. It snapped a six-match winning streak for Makantasi, the reigning Western Athletic Singles Athlete of the Week.
The next finish evened the team score back at 2-2 with Vaudiau rolling Romero 6-2, 6-2, marking her eighth straight singles victory. At No. 1, the Lady Techsters took a 3-2 lead with Marcinkevica losing 4-6, 6-4, 1-6 to Schuknecht. The match was clinched by LA Tech in the No. 4 position, as Boisson had her six-match winning streak snapped by Tetruashvili 4-6, 6-4, 3-6. Aguilar was in a battle at No. 2, with a late lead at 6-2, 4-6, 6-5, but the match went unfinished.
LA Tech improved to 11-2 on the season, bringing their winning streak to nine and a 9-0 home record. Tarleton lost their first match since Jan. 22, ending a six-match run to sink them to 7-3 overall.
Staying on the same courts, Tarleton then faced Grambling State, who entered the match with a winless 0-8 record. This match was one-sided the entirety, with Tarleton winning the doubles point courtesy of two sweeps. Marcinkevica and Aguilar won 6-0 against Brittney Combest and Lungile Ntuli at No. 1, and Makantasi-Boisson took down Itzel Hernandez and Takudzwa Mawisire 6-0 at No. 3. At No. 2, Palatte and Vaudiau led Claire Machisa and Georgina Kaindoah 3-2 before the match was discontinued.
In singles, just three of the six matches had a final result with the team match point clinched early. Makantasi beat Kaindoah 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2, Boisson defeated Mawisire 6-1, 6-3 at No. 3, and Vaudiau won 6-2, 6-1 over Machisa at No. 4. Makantasi and Boisson each improved to 8-3 on the season, while Vaudiau maintained her immaculate record, now 9-1 with nine straight singles wins.
Tarleton led all three unfinished singles matches; Marcinkevica 6-0, 5-3 over Hernandez at No. 1, Anna Davidson 6-3, 5-0 over Ana Ochoa at No. 5, and Palatte 7-5, 1-0 over Mikaila Coleman at No. 6.
The Texans are now 8-3 on the season, 4-0 at home, 3-3 on the road and 1-0 in neutral locations. They’ll have two more matches this week, both in Phoenix. On Friday, Tarleton will play at Grand Canyon at 11 a.m. CT at the GCU Tennis Facility. On Saturday on the same courts, the Texans will have a neutral site match against Dixie State at 11 a.m.
Be the first to comment