The Texas A&M women’s tennis team sealed the deal with a 4-1 win over the Missouri Tigers in its April 8 match up at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. The Aggies are now 14-5 overall after their sixth SEC win of the season.
In doubles, the Aggies were unable to adjust to the Tigers’ squads. In singles, the Aggies flipped the script. The first win tally for the Aggies was junior Jayci Goldsmith by way of a 6-3, 6-2 win against Ellie Wright for the draw. The tiebreaker came from a 7-5, 6-0 victory from Dorthea Faa-Hviding against Valentina Vasquez Pongruber. Senior Riley McQuaid ran up the score to 3-1 defeating Marta Oliveira 6-4, 6-1. The final blow came from none other than Renee McBryde. Her 6-4, 6-3 win was her seventh clinch victory of 2021.
McBryde is now responsible for sealing the deal on half of the Aggie win column including each SEC matchup this year.
“It’s just a crazy coincidence,” McBryde told 12thman.com. “I wouldn’t be in the position to clinch matches if it wasn’t for the rest of the team. We all work together so well, and we all encourage each other. I guess someone has to push the team across the finish line, and today that was me.”
A&M looked a little rough giving up the doubles point to Missouri. No. 70 Goldsmith and Makarova battled a series of mistakes that made their deficit grow, ending in a 6-3 loss to No. 69 ranked duo Bronte Murgett and Oliveira. McBryde and Faa-Hviding didn’t fare much better, also dropping a match 6-3. The third doubles match went unfinished.
As Arkansas prepares to visit Aggieland next Saturday, A&M coach Mark Weaver said he sees room for improvement.
“We definitely need to find ways to improve our play in doubles,” Weaver told 12thman.com. “And that’s going to be the focus of our practice tomorrow. We will come out ready to go against Arkansas. As far as singles goes, we were looking pretty good on all six courts. We played our games and our styles of tennis, and we really brought it in the singles matches.”
The next match for the team will be against the Arkansas Razorbacks on April 10 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center at 12 p.m. The Aggies plan to celebrate seniors McQuaid and Faa-Hviding with a senior day festivity before the match; the celebration is open to the public.