ARLINGTON, Texas – The UT Arlington women's tennis team dropped their first match of the year on Saturday, falling to the Rice Owls 6-1 at the UTA Tennis Center. Despite the score, the Mavericks competed for the win.
The Owls jumped out to a 1-0 match lead after capturing the doubles point. #37 Priya Niezgoda and Anastasia Smirnova defeated UTA's
Nanaka Takeuchi and
Liz Chileno on Court One, 6-1. On Court Two, Jardi El Diae defeated
Lucia Natal and Aida Garcia Mende 6-3. On Court three,
Polina Akimova and
Momoka Horiguchi were knotted at 4-4 when their match was suspended.
The Mavs were swept on Courts Two, Four and Five in singles play, but the rest of the matches went three sets. Akimova played her first match on Court One and proved her worth by winning in three sets, 4-6, 7-5, 10-7. On Court Six,
Almudena Boza responded from a 5-7 first set loss by winning set two 7-5, but ultimately fell 10-8 in the deciding set. Chileno won the first set on Court Three 7-5 over Linda Huarig, but fell in the subsequent sets 6-4, 10-6.
UTA will return to action on Sunday (Feb. 2 ) when they host Colorado State at the UTA Tennis Center at 11 am.
