The Texas A&M men’s and women’s tennis teams both kicked off their respective seasons this weekend.
The men recorded seven wins at the Midland Fall Invitational and the women sent players to both the Under Armour/HEB Kickoff in Waco and the Oracle/ITA Masters in Malibu, Calif.
For the men, juniors Frankie Colunga and James Martell as well as freshmen Oscar Janglin and Kevin Lam collected victories in singles. In doubles, the Aggies split their two matches. Martell and Lam teamed up to beat the pair from Texas-Arlington, while Colunga and Janglin lost to Abiline Christian.
In their first taste of collegiate tennis, both freshmen won their first round match and then lost in the second. Janglin won (6-3, 7-5) over New Mexico before losing to Texas Tech, Lam however needed all three sets to defeat Boise State and then succumbed to Tech in his second match.
The women’s team, on the other hand, was represented at two different tournaments. The team won four of six matches on the opening day in Waco, Texas including both of its doubles matches against Baylor. Eva Paalma and Stefania Hristov coupled to take down the Bears 8-5, while Rutuja Bhosale and Domenica Gonzalez won 8-4.
In singles the two seniors, Hristov and Anna Mamalat, each beat Ohio State by scores of (6-1, 6-1) and (3-6, 6-2, 6-4), respectively. The others didn’t fare so well against the Buckeyes, though, as Bhosale fell in consecutive sets and Paalma retired her match after splitting the first two sets.
Out on the west coast, two Aggie juniors – Saska Gavrilovska and Rachel Pierson – lost in the first round in singles and doubles. The tandem lost to USC in doubles and then they each lost individual matches to their Virginia counterparts.
On Saturday, the women went 5-1 as a team against Alabama and Ohio State. And on Sunday, the duo of Mamalat and Hristov cruised to a 8-0 win over Alabama in the final doubles match, improving the Aggies’ record in such matches to 5-1 for the tournament.
Mamalat put the finishing touches on the successful weekend for the women, beating Baylor 6-4, 6-2 in the final match of the tournament.
The women’s team will return to action on October 3rd when they travel to Pacific Palisades, CA to enter into the Riviera ITA All-American pre-qualifier round. The defending SEC champion men’s team will return to College Station to host the Conference Challenge next weekend at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
