No. 2 Texas A&M women’s tennis and Aggie baseball had common enemies in LSU on the evening of Friday, March 17, as the former defeated the No. 38 Tigers 5-2 and extended its win streak to eight matches.
On Court 1, graduates Jayci Goldsmith and Salma Ewing secured the first win in doubles play for the maroon and white, defeating the purple and gold’s redshirt freshman Anastasiya Komar and senior Safiya Carrington, 6-2. This pairing now has the Aggies’ highest doubles wins with 12.
For doubles, sophomore Mary Stoiana’s usual partner, senior Carson Branstine, did not play; instead, Stoiana was on Court 2 with freshman Mia Kupres. The duo secured the doubles point for the Aggies with a close 6-5 win over the Tigers’ junior Kylie Collins and senior Nina Geissler.
“We came up with a close doubles point and held out with some strong showings in singles,” coach Mark Weaver said to 12thMan.com.
In singles, Ewing fell to the Belarusian Komar by scores of 6-3 and 6-2 on Court 2, evening out the scoreboard for LSU.
Goldsmith boosted the Aggies back up a point, taking down Carrington 6-3 and 7-6. Putting the maroon and white at a greater advantage, Stoiana won her singles match over Collins 6-3 and 6-3.
Sophomore Gianna Pielet, after competing in an unfinished doubles with sophomore Jeannette Mireles on Court 3, won her singles match against another Belarusian opponent in graduate Mia Rabinowitz, 7-6 and 6-3, making her 4-0 in singles play on the season.
Coming off of her third SEC Freshman of the Week award, Kupres won her singles match against Geissler with scores of 5-7, 6-1 and 6-1, marking her 12th dual match win this season, a team high.
The final point of singles was given to LSU freshman Nikita Vishwase as she bested Daria Smettanikov 7-5, 4-6 and 6-4.
“Overall, it was a good team win, but credit to LSU as they came in and played at a high level,” Weaver said to 12thMan.com.
The Aggies will play again this weekend on Saturday, March 19, at 12 p.m. against No. 13 Miami at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The Fightin’ Farmers have won all three matches they’ve played against the Hurricanes, boasting a .909 winning percentage against ranked opponents this season.