Texas A&M women’s tennis concluded the season on Wednesday, May 26 with a loss in the NCAA Individual Championships Doubles Quarterfinals.
A&M senior Tatiana Makrova and junior Jayci Goldsmith both earned ITA All-American honors before falling to a pair from Virginia while competing at the USTA National Campus Collegiate Complex in Orlando.
The only other pair of Aggies to earn the status of All-American was Rutuja Bhosale and Rachel Pierson in 2017. Makarova and Goldsmith recently joined the elite company.
The Aggie duo, ranked No. 20, managed to hang with No. 21 Rosie Johnson and Emma Navarro and tied the game at three before Virgina pulled ahead and won the opener 6-3. The Cavalier’s then capitalized on momentum, winning the second set 6-1. The pair of wins advanced Virginia in the NCAA Tournament while ending the Aggies’ season.
A&M coach Mark Weaver praised the Aggies for their performance and said overall he’s pleased with the team’s season.
“Although this was a very tough match for us today, we are extremely happy to be returning to Aggieland with All-American recognition for Tatiana [Makarova] and Jayci [Goldsmith],” Weaver said. “It has been an incredible season for our team as a whole, and for these two individually. Coach [Jordan] Szabo and I can’t wait for our opportunities coming up and we are very optimistic going forward into next season.”
Although the maroon and white fell short in the quarterfinals, Weaver said he’s excited to have Makarova and Goldsmith returning to Aggieland, along with four other members of this year’s squad finishing 15th in the final Oracle ITA Women’s Team rankings for this year’s dual match season.
The maroon and white finished the season with a 20-11 overall record with multiple wins over ranked opponents.
A&M will now begin preparing for upcoming summer and fall tournaments with the addition of a handful of athletes to the team. Despite losing a pair of athletes to graduation, the Aggies have four freshmen joining the squad and are ranked the No. 3 signing class for 2021.