Coming off of a dominant 6-1 win over Pepperdine, Texas A&M women’s tennis looked to build upon its impressive 9-1 record as they began SEC play against No. 8 Texas in Austin at the Texas Tennis Center.
The Aggies sawed ’em off and did not disappoint the 12th Man. After going down 3-0, they fought back with heart and resilience to complete a gritty comeback, 4-3.
“Just incredible heart and fight by our group,” coach Mark Weaver said. “That’s a story book ending there. I’ve been through this a long time, 26 years of coaching. This is definitely up there at the top. Coming in 3-0, coming to Austin and beating the best teams in the nation. The girls really pulled through. The big challenge of the day was how tough can we be? How gritty can we be? How much can we fight? That’s all it came down to, and I’m really proud of them. This is one for the ages.”
Beginning with doubles play, the Aggies’ sophomore Luccianan Perez and junior Lizanne Boyer started hot on Court 5. With incredible net skills, both volleyed and hit drop shots to get the better of the Longhorns’ freshmen Carmen Herea and Salma Drugdova, 6-4.
Court 3 was a different story for the Maroon and White. While junior Nichole Khirin and freshman Lexington Reed played exceptional tennis, shanked forehands and backhand errors allowed the Longhorns to grab an early lead they would never relinquish, as the Longhorns defended their home court 6-4.
All attention was on Court 1 as it held the prize of the day’s first point. After the Texas freshman duo of Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo and Ashton Bowers jumped out to a 3-0 lead, A&M’s No. 102 junior Daria Smetannikov and 2024 doubles All-American junior Mia Kupres showed relentlessness as they broke back to tie the match at three.
The crowd roared as the final games had both teams under immense pressure. While the Aggies showed great effort, they were ultimately downed after giving up serve, 6-4.
With the Aggies’ senior Jeanette Mireles out, Boyer stepped in for some singles action on Court 6. While she demonstrated some creative play and decent ball-striking ability, Anazagasty-Pursoo was too much to handle as she was defeated in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.
Court 1 was a similar story. While Khirin demonstrated incredible net game and serving ability, baseline errors piled up and kept her from gaining momentum against Zeynalova. She couldn’t recover after going down a break in both sets and was taken down, 6-3, 6-3.
Kupres put A&M on the board on Court 2. Demonstrating incredible consistency and never dropping serve, she gave Texas’ freshman Eszter Meri no chance to strike. After claiming the first set with an incredible forehand passing shot, Kupres pressured Meri into errors and snatched the win, 6-3, 6-3.
A&M’s comeback began to take shape after Reed captured the second point of the day for the Maroon and White on Court 6 in a battle against Kempenaers-Pocz. While both players held serve for most of the match, Reed utilized backhand slices and baseline consistency to break at the right time as she came out with a close straight-sets victory, 7-5, 7-5.
The crowd was treated to a thriller on Court 3 between Perez and Bowers. After an intense first-set tiebreaker that saw Perez take a 7-6 victory, she struggled early in the second with holding serve and staying consistent.
Down 5-2 in the second set, Perez fought back with heart and determination, holding serve before breaking twice to tie the set at five. After playing defense and using pin-point accuracy, Perez clinched the third point of the day for the Aggies in a second-set tiebreaker, 7-6, 7-6.
Smetannikov completed an incredible team comeback after out-dueling Herea in a three-set thriller. After dropping the second set, Smetannikov showed discipline and poise as she leveraged her strengths and played the long game, rallying back and forth while moving Herea around the court. She took full control of the match by utilizing every shot in her arsenal, winning in dramatic fashion to seal the win for A&M, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
“Once Mia got a point on the board then Lexington got on the board, the momentum started coming,” Weaver said. “I think maybe Texas saw the finish line a little bit, but we kept just putting our heads down and we stayed in the moment. That has been one of the big challenges I have talked about this season, just staying in the moment. Just truly champions and a lot of heroes out there. Everybody on our team was a hero today. If you have never seen a college tennis match, you should have seen that one. Some of the most exciting and exhilarating competition you will ever see in any sport.”
A&M will be back in action when the Aggies return home to the Mitchell Tennis Center to host Arkansas on Friday, Feb. 28.
