Apr 14, 2019
OXFORD, Miss. – The No. 16 Texas A&M women's tennis team fell, 4-2, in the regular season finale at Ole Miss (12-11, 5-8) Sunday at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center. The Aggies (20-6, 8-5) are the fifth-seed in next week's SEC Tournament in College Station.
"Well done by Ole Miss, they competed very hard and played very high percentage tennis all day and gave us no free points," Texas A&M women's tennis head coach Mark Weaver said. "Anytime you play on the road in the SEC and especially in an indoor tennis match, you have to be decisively better than the home team and that just wasn't the case today. One thing we have done well all year is have short term memory and have rebounded from disappointing matches. This is another opportunity for us to learn and get better as we head into the SEC Tournament and hope take advantage of our home courts."
A&M opened the match by securing the doubles point for the 18th time this season. A&M's 28th-ranked duo of Jayci Goldsmith and Tatiana Makarova earned a 6-4 victory over Ole Miss' 85th-ranked pair of Alexa Bortles and Sabina Machalova on the top court. After the Rebels earned a 7-5 victory on the middle court, A&M's Riley McQuaid and Lucia Quiterio clinched the point with a 7-5 triumph on court three over Cameron Kriscunas and Teresa Janatova.
Ole Miss responded with a straight-set win on court one by Machalova over A&M's Katya Townsend. The Maroon & White regained the advantage briefly as Quiterio bested Kriscunas, 6-3, 6-3 on court six to push A&M ahead 2-1. Quiterio improved to 13-2 this spring and 3-1 in SEC matches with the win.
The Rebels rattled off the next three wins to secure the team match. Ole Miss' Anna Vrbenska topped Makarova 6-3, 6-1 on court three followed by No. 74 Tea Jandric winning 6-4, 6-1 on court two over A&M's Goldsmith. Ole Miss clinched the match on court four by Janatova 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 over A&M's Renee McBryde.