In its penultimate match of the regular season No. 2 Texas A&M women’s tennis found itself on the wrong side of an upset versus No. 7 Oklahoma on Thursday, April 9. The Aggies received a harsh welcome to the Headington Family Tennis Center in Norman, Oklahoma, falling to the Sooners 4-1.
The Sooner wagon got rolling immediately on Court 3 in doubles play as the No. 66 duo of senior Julia Garcia Ruiz and sophomore Salakthip Ounmuang demolished the Maroon and White pairing of senior Violeta Martinez and freshman Anna Perelman. Despite being Oklahoma’s lowest ranked combo, Garcia Ruiz and Ounmuang had no problem dispatching of its foes, 6-1.
Oklahoma then secured the doubles point on Court 2 as the No. 15 combo of freshmen phenoms Evialina Laskevich and Edda Mamedova outclassed the duo of senior Daria Smetannikov and sophomore Lexington Reed. While the Aggies experience kept them in the fight, it ultimately wasn’t enough, dropping the match 6-4.
While going unfinished on Court 1 the No. 14 duo of A&M’s senior Mia Kupres and junior Lucciana Perez was notably on top of the No. 1 duo of Oklahoma’s redshirt junior Roisin Gilheany and sophomore Gloriana Nahum 5-3 before being called off.
With a 1-0 advantage Oklahoma kept the good times rolling on Court 2 as No. 54 Mamedova secured the upset over No. 35 Kupres. The senior Kupres was completely outclassed by the freshman Mamedova, going down in lopsided straight sets, 6-2, 6-1.
The Maroon and White secured their only point of the occasion on Court 1 as the top singles player in the country, No. 1 Perez, extended her Southeastern Conference winning streak to 32 with a victory over No. 10 Laskevich in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4.
The win for Perez failed to turn the tide for the Aggies, as the Sooners dominated the remaining singles matches en route to the upset win. To go up 3-1, No. 64 Garcia Ruiz outclassed No. 103 Reed on Court 3, 6-4, 6-2.
Securing the win for Oklahoma was Ounmuang in a nail-biting contest over No. 84 Smetannikov on Court 5. The deciding match went to a tiebreak in the first set 7-6 (10), before Ounmuang stepped up in the second set, 6-3.
Two singles matches went unfinished as the Sooners secured the swift victory. Perelman and Nahum were notched at 6-2, 4-6, 3-3 on Court 6, while on Court 4 junior Chloé Noël and Martinez sat at 5-7, 7-6 (1).
The 4-1 win for Oklahoma snapped A&M’s seven-match winning streak, as the Aggies suffered their first loss since March 12 against No. 1 Georgia. The Maroon and White stay on the road for their final match of the regular season, travelling to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to take on the Razorbacks on Saturday, April 11.
