RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women’s tennis team dropped its season-opening South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union, 6-1, to the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (AMCC) Islanders Sunday at the Orville Cox Tennis Center.
The doubles session was a tale of two themes. The Islanders won the first match, 6-0 at No. 3. On court one, UTRGV’s top duo of senior Lea Karren and junior Marjorie Souza dominated their match to the tune of a 6-0 win of their own.
After two sub-30-minute matches, all eyes turned to the battle at No. 2 which took over an hour to decide. UTRGV’s duo of junior Kristal Dule and sophomore Yaiza Vazquez fell behind 0-2 early to AMCC’s Valeriia Cherfus/Kateryna Rublevska. The Vaqueros rallied back to win a pair of games, but the Islanders went right back up 5-3. Dule/Vazquez went on a roll with the doubles point on the line to get on top, 6-5, but AMCC evened the set at 6-all. In the tiebreaker, Cherfus/Rublevska used a fast start to secure the 1-0 lead with a 7-6 (7:1) win.
The Islanders clinched the victory with straight-set singles wins on the sixth, fourth and first courts. An injury retirement for UTRGV at No. 3 extended AMCC’s lead to 5-0.
Souza outdueled AMCC’s Naomi McKenzie for a 7-5 win in a tight first set at No. 2, but McKenzie came back to win the match, 6-3 in the second and 1-0 (10:7) in a third-set tiebreaker.
Dule showed her resilience at No. 5, coming back from dropping the first set of her match, 7-5, to control a long second and send it to a 10-point tiebreaker after a 6-4 frame. The junior battled hard in her UTRGV debut and put the Vaqueros on the board with a 1-0 (10:6) third-set win.
UTRGV (0-1) hits the road for a trio of matches in central Texas starting with an 11:30 a.m. match Friday at Southwestern.
Complete Results
Doubles (3, 1, 2)
1. Lea Karren/Marjorie Souza (UTRGV) def. Emma Aucagne/Naomi McKenzie (AMCC) 6-0
2. Valeriia Cherfus/Kateryna Rublevska (AMCC) def. Kristal Dule/Yaiza Vazquez (UTRGV) 7-6 (7:1)
3. Palina Saulevich/Ana Veroux (AMCC) def. Valentina Urraco/Giuliana Castelain (UTRGV) 6-0
Singles (6, 4, 1, 3, 2, 5)
1. Emma Aucagne (AMCC) def. Lea Karren (UTRGV) 6-2, 6-1
2. Naomi McKenzie (AMCC) def. Marjorie Souza (UTRGV) 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (10:7)
3. Valeriia Cherfus (AMCC) def. Yaiza Vazquez (UTRGV) 7-6 (7:3), 3-0, ret.
4. Ana Veroux (AMCC) def. Valentina Urraco (UTRGV) 6-1, 6-3
5. Kristal Dule (UTRGV) def. Kateryna Rublevska (AMCC) 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (10:6)
6. Palina Saulevich (AMCC) def. Giuliana Castelain (UTRGV) 6-1, 6-0
Support UTRGV Women’s Tennis | Become a Fan on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter | Follow us on Instagram | Follow us on YouTube