Sunday, March 27 saw a ranked matchup between the No. 12 Texas A&M and the No. 7 Georgia women’s tennis teams. The two teams had a combined record of 31-3 heading into the weekend bout, adding up for a perfect 13-0 in SEC play.
The Aggies and Bulldogs were in singles play, and Court 3 was a back-and-forth affair, the last of the courts standing. A&M freshman No. 93 Mary Stoiana faced Georgia freshman No. 40 Dasha Vidmanova.
With hundreds of fans in attendance in Athens, Ga., cheering on the home teams’ Vidmanova as she battled in a third-set with Stoiana, the Bulldog ended up falling to the Aggie by a score of 7-6, 2-6, 6-1.
The match was over, and the Aggies won — a 7-0 sweep against the No. 7 team in the nation.
“It’s a pretty impressive performance by our group here. My guess is that a result like that hasn’t happened at the University of Georgia in quite some time, if it has ever happened at all,” A&M coach Mark Weaver said. “They had a huge crowd out, and we did a really great job of embracing their crowd. Beating them 7-0 is truly unheard of.”
The Aggies keep stacking wins, rising to a historic record of 22-1, 8-0 in conference and the best start in program history.
“We are definitely making some history here and there have been a ton of highlights already this season,” Weaver said. “Our motto all season has been to continue getting better and better each day. That mindset showed itself today and it will remain our motto for the remainder of the regular season.”
The Bulldogs, who fell to 10-3, 6-1 in SEC play, weren’t just a good all-around team; they had a lineup stacked with ranked athletes.
In doubles play, A&M’s No. 2 duo of senior Tatiana Makarova and junior Jayci Goldsmith took down Georgia’s No. 12 duo of graduate Morgan Coppoc and junior Ania Hertel. As well, A&M’s No. 48 duo of Stoiana and junior Carson Branstine took down Georgia’s No. 47 duo of Vidmanova and freshman Mell Reasco.
In singles play, Georgia had a ranked player on five of the six courts — No. 27 junior Lea Ma, No. 21 Reasco, No. 40 Vidmanova, No. 71 Meg Kowalski and No. 117 Hertel.
The Bulldogs marked the fifth team that was ranked at match time to play against Aggies this season, all of which have been in the top 20 and three of which have been top 10. The Bulldogs were the highest ranked team the Aggies have beaten this season, their previous best win having come versus then-No. 10 USC and the lone loss coming versus then-No. 4 California.
“I think one of the big things that we emphasized after the Tennessee match on Friday, [March 25,] we spoke a lot about developing a championship mindset,” Weaver said. “I truly believe that we played like champions out there today. We rose to the occasion. We’re still in basketball season around here, and the analogy I shared with the team was that each player should want to be the person taking the game-winning shot, not the person passing it off to someone else. That was a big part of our mindset today, and it really paid off.”
A&M has five matches remaining before the postseason begins with the SEC Tournament from April 20-24. The Aggies’ final five games all come against conference competition, the next being a home matchup against Auburn on Friday, April 1 at 5 p.m.