Fresh off their regular season championship ring ceremony, the women’s tennis team opened up their spring 2024 season Saturday with a 7-0 home victory over Prairie View A&M University.

“This is a brand new season and everybody’s getting better. I [think] that we’re better than last year but also other teams in our conference are better than last year, so we have to be ready for competition,” head coach Diego Benitez said.

The Mavericks started the day with a 1-0 advantage after Prairie View was forced to forfeit both a singles and doubles match due to having only five active players. Benitez said he felt bad that some of UTA’s girls didn’t get to compete, but that the team didn’t want to get too comfortable knowing they had the early advantage.

“I think that the girls played really good. They came out on fire and they played good doubles and then carried on the momentum into singles,” Benitez said.

UTA pushed their lead to two after taking the doubles point.

In singles play, the Mavericks collected two more quick points by way of junior Ana Paula Jimenez (6-1, 6-1) and senior Bruna Casasampere (6-0, 6-2) to go up 4-0 and clinch the victory before the rest of the matches ended.

“To clinch the match in a quick way is always good and then relax a little bit,” Benitez said. “The other girls can maybe try out other parts of their game that maybe they’re not too comfortable trying.”

One of the highlight singles matches of the day involved junior Tara Gorinsek who won 6-2, 6-3.

“Tara played a great match against their number one. She’s always very tough to compete. She has a very uncomfortable game to play against,” Benitez said.

The Mavericks will return to the UTA Tennis Center at 10 a.m on Feb. 2 to take on Dallas Baptist University and Cameron University in a doubleheader.

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