Texas A&M women’s tennis took on its second fall tournament of the season when at the Southern Methodist Metroplex Mania this weekend in Dallas.
For some girls, this was their first tournament of the season. Head coach Mark Weaver felt confident bringing them into the tournament after having several weeks of solid practice.
“This will be the first tournament of the fall for a several of our girls who will be getting in some much-needed tournament play,” Weaver said. “Coach [Jordan] Szabo and I are very pleased with the way practices have been going over the course of the last several weeks, and we feel that we are ready to perform well this weekend in Dallas.”
Redshirt sophomore Margo Taylor, freshman Riley McQuaid, and senior Macarena Olivares represented the Aggies in both doubles and singles play.
To open the singles draw, Olivares faced off against Georgia State senior Kristen Rehse, and was defeated by Rehse 7-5, 6-3. She went on to defeat junior Carla Cerdan from UT-Arlington in two sets (6-2, 6-3) to finish in seventh place for the first singles draw.
McQuaid represented the Aggies in the third singles draw and was defeated by Abilene Christian sophomore Sarah Adams 6-4, 6-3, placing McQuaid in the consolation bracket. She won the bracket defeating Northwestern State’s Ela Iwaniuk 4-6, 5-4, and Louisiana-Monroe’s Madalina Grigoriu 6-1, 6-0.
Taking Abilene Christian freshman Ileana Mocciola to three sets (3-6, 6-3, 6-2), Taylor secured her first win of her A&M career, advancing her to Saturday’s match.
Taylor fell to Momoka Horiguchi in two sets (6-2,6-1) on Saturday. She concluded her singles play on Sunday with a win in three sets against Georgia State’s Ilona Golynker with scores 4-6, 6-2, and 10-4.
Olivares and Taylor paired up as double partners and were defeated by junior Stefana Andrei and freshman Karolina Snita of Louisiana-Monroe in one set, 7-5. This loss moved the duo to the consolation bracket.
Here they were defeated again by Southern Methodist’s Ana Perez-Lopez and Sarai Monarrez Yesaki 7-6 (4) and were set to play once more for seventh place. They defeated sophomore Marie Van Aelst and freshman Gitte Heynemans from Arizona in one set (6-4) to place seventh in the first doubles draw.
To conclude A&M’s time in Dallas, McQuaid paired with SMU’s Tiffany Hollebeck in the second doubles draw, making it the championship round. The duo then defeated Ela Iwaniuk and Judit Castillo from NSU 6-1, moving them to the semifinal round where they defeated ACU’s Sarah Adams and Nini Memishishi 7-6.
Despite their past success, McQuaid and Hollebeck lost to NSU’s Polina Ivanova and Polina Mutel 6-4, finishing second in the doubles draw.
The Aggies will compete again Oct. 13-17 in the ITA Texas Regional Championships in Fort Worth.