Aggies tame Wildcats

A&M women’s tennis served into another victory at home on Sunday

March 25, 2024

Junior Jeanette Mireles returns the ball at Texas A&M’s match against Kentucky at the Outdoor Mitchell Tennis Center on Sunday, March 24, 2024. (Connor May/The Battalion)

The No. 11 Texas A&M women’s tennis team took on No. 67 Kentucky Wildcats on March 24, sweeping them off the court 6-1.

The match started with doubles play. While Court 1 had the ranked No. 5 pair, the most dominant doubles duo was junior Mary Stoiana and sophomore Mia Kupres on Court 3. The team of sophomore Nicole Khirin and graduate Sydney Fitch gave the Aggies their first win as they led with a victory over Kentucky’s freshman Julia Zhu and junior Lidia Gonzalez, 6-0.

Their win was followed by junior Jeanette Mireles and freshman Lucciana Perez, who took on junior Ellie Eades and sophomore Zoe Hammond to ensure the doubles point, 6-1.

No. 36 Kupres doubled the lead for A&M after her win against Gonzalez, 6-0, 6-0. With her serve and volley abilities, Kupres had the upper hand as Gonzalez struggled to respond to the cross-court serves. Stoiana, the No. 1 player in the country, came back and won, 6-2, 6-1 against Stevens, putting the Aggies at a 3-0 lead against the Wildcats.

Zhu won her fourth straight match in the Southeastern Conference against Mireles. Zhu started with a 4-0 lead in the first set, but Mireles came back to even the set before Zhu hunkered down to gain the only singles win for the Wildcats. She served for the match and claimed victory on the following point.

The Maroon and White secured their last set of victories that helped them clinch the match. Junior Ellie Pittman took on sophomore Ellie Myers and won 6-2, 6-4. This marked Pittman’s first conference singles match of the year on Court 6.

On Court 4, freshman Lucciana Perez’s slice shots were no match for Eades as the Wildcat continued to respond on the baseline. Perez’s quick responses caused many faults on the Kentucky player’s end as most serves were responded to by shots that hit the net.

No. 14 Khirin then went up against Hammond and won, 7-5, 6-3, which led A&M to its sixth win and Khirin’s 14th-straight win.

“The conditions were about as tough as it could be, and we handled it well,” coach Mark Weaver said. “It was a very decisive weekend for our team and our confidence continues to grow.”

A&M women’s tennis is set to play LSU at the LSU Tennis Center on Friday, March 29 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at 5 p.m.

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About the Contributor

Shalina Sabih, Sports Writer

Shalina is a Pakistani-American journalism major from Dallas, TX. She is also minoring in communications. Aside from being a sports writer, she freelances for the yearbook and is an intern writer at The Bryan-College Station Chronicle. She is the winner of the Headliners Foundation Scholarship and is the only Aggie who received the scholarship for the 2024-25 school year. Shalina's favorite sport is football, and she loves the Dallas Cowboys. She wants to pursue a career in journalism after graduating college and also plans to attend law school.