4/20/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. - A nemesis since joining the league, South Alabama ended UT Arlington's season with a 4-1 match on Friday in the SBC Championship quarterfinals at the Peachtree City Tennis Center.
Having taken on the Jaguars four out of five appearances in the tournament, UTA couldn't steal away momentum from the Jaguars, ending UTA's season at 10-9.
"I am proud of these girls and the fight that the showed despite some adversity coming in," UTA coach Diego Benitez said. "We were without our No. 1 singles player, and the ladies stepped up a position today in a hard-fought match against a team we are very familiar against. We had a great season to build on and we have a lot of talent returning next season.
Learning the No. 1 singles player Agustina Serio, the lone senior on the squad, would be out due to a season-ending injury, UTA shuffled the lineup and found itself in a battle early.
Momoka Horiguchi and Nanaka Takeuchi moved up to the No. 1 doubles position and had no trouble in a 6-1 decision. Falling 7-5 at No. 2 doubles, eyes turned to a tiebreak at No. 3 that went in South Alabama's favor, 7-6 (6-2).
South Alabama doubled its advantage at No. 1 singles with a 6-2, 6-2 win, but Almudena Boza showed that UTA wasn't going out without a fight, winning 6-1, 7-6 (6-3) at No. 4. No. 5 singles went the Jaguars way, but all three remaining matches were left in the balance with the Mavs leading in two of them.
Getting a break of serve, Lucia Natal appeared to be able to push through to tip the scales to UTA, but USA's No. 3 player broke back and took the final game to clinch a 7-5, 7-5 win and end UTA's season.
