Apr 11, 2019
STARKVILLE, Miss. – The No. 16 Texas A&M women's tennis team defeated Mississippi State, 4-2, Thursday evening at the AJ Pitts Tennis Centre. The Aggies (20-5, 8-4) and Bulldogs (12-12, 3-9) played Thursday evening due to inclement weather in the forecast Friday.
"Great team win by the group today after having to move the match up from Friday," Texas A&M women's tennis head coach Mark Weaver said. "Mississippi State has won a lot of doubles points against some very good team this year, so it was important for us to take that lead. Losing four first sets is never a good thing especially on the road, but it was an excellent response overall to come back and get the 4-2 and likely a 5-2 win if Katya's [Townsend] match would have been played out. Jayci [Goldsmith] played an amazing second set to turn that around and finished very strong in the third set to close out the win. The birthday girl Lucia [Quiterio] was the first off the court to get us a quick second point and Tatiana [Makarova] wasn't far behind with a very decisive win as well on her court."
The Aggies' No. 1 doubles team of Goldsmith and Tatiana Makarova, ranked No. 28, opened the match with an impressive 6-1 win on court one over MSU's Magda Adaloglou and Tamara Racine, ranked No. 66. The A&M duo improved to 15-6 on the top doubles court, including a top-10 win last week at LSU as they defeated the defending NCAA Doubles Champions.
A&M's Riley McQuaid and Lucia Quiterio clinched the doubles point with a 6-3 triumph on court three over the Bulldog pair of Janina Braun and Meredith Roberts. The Aggie tandem improved to 8-4 together after capturing their sixth SEC win of the year. The doubles clincher was their second straight as a duo and Quiterio's team-leading seventh.
Quiterio posted A&M's second point of the night with a 6-0, 6-2 win on court six. Quiterio, a freshman from Benedita, Portugal, improved to 12-2 in dual matches and 2-1 in league play.
MSU turned the momentum with four first sets in singles action, converting a pair of those into straight set wins on court four and five to even the match at two-all.
A&M regained the lead with a 6-3, 6-2 win by Tatiana Makarova on court three over MSU's Adaloglou. Makarova posted her 13th dual win of the spring and 19th overall victory this year to push A&M ahead 3-2.
No. 62 Goldsmith clinched the win for the Aggies, winning in three-sets on court two over MSU's Anastasia Rentouli. Goldsmith's 0-6, 6-1, 6-2 win was her 25th win this year, the most by an Aggie in 2018-19, and improved her dual record to 16-5, the second most wins by an Aggie this spring.