PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – For a second consecutive season, the UT Arlington women's tennis team will advance to the semi-finals of the Sun Belt Conference tournament. The Mavericks swept Texas State 4-0 on Friday afternoon at the Peachtree City Tennis Center.
The Mavericks went straight to business in doubles competition. At No. 3,
Carla Pons and
Almudena Boza jumped out to a 5-1 lead before the Bobcats were able to respond with their second point. The tandem wasted no time gaining their sixth point of the match to capture the first doubles point for the Mavs.
"We were able to settle in and handle the extra pressure that comes with the conference tournament," said head coach
Diego Benitez. "Doubles set the tone for our singles to play a very aggressive and intense level of tennis."
Pons and Boza were nearly perfect when serving in the match, winning 14 of their 16 first serves (88 percent) compared to just 12 of 22 (55 percent) for the Bobcats.
On court two, with the match tied 3-3,
Bruna Casasampere and
Momoka Horiguchi settled down to take three straight games over the Texas State tandem. UTA captured the No. 2 doubles spot 6-3 and took a 1-0 lead into singles competition.
Liz Chileno and
Nanaka Takeuchi had their match called leading 4-3.
The momentum carried over for UTA into singles play, with five out of the six Mavericks taking the first set.
Boza gave the Mavericks their second point of the match with a 6-1, 6-0 straight set win at No. 5 over Chacadya Israel-Lewis, never trailing in either set.
Following a hard-fought first set 7-5 win at No. 4,
Lucia Natal made quick work in the second set as she kept her undefeated season alive and gave the Mavs a 3-0 lead, taking set two 6-2.
Needing just one more win to clinch the match and advance to the semi-finals,
Liz Chileno delivered. At No. 2, Chileno took down Rishona Israel-Lewis in straight sets 6-0, 6-2 to give the Mavericks their second sweep over the Bobcats this season.
UP NEXT
The Mavericks advance to the semi-finals of the Sun Belt Conference tournament and will play #2E Georgia Southern at 1 p.m. tomorrow, April 17.
