ARLINGTON, Texas– In front of a large home crowd, the No. 1 seeded UT Arlington women's tennis team (18-3) came from behind to knock off No. 8 Sam Houston (5-13) 4-2 in the quarterfinals of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) tournament Thursday at the Arlington Tennis Center.

With the victory, the Mavericks advanced to face No. 4 Grand Canyon (13-9) in the semifinals at 9 a.m. on Friday. UTA defeated the Lopes 4-3 in their lone regular-season matchup.
 
The Bearkats came out strong on Thursday, taking the early lead with doubles wins on Courts 1 and 2, although Bruna Casasampere and Francisca Vergara produced a thrilling 7-5 win in come-from-behind fashion on Court 3.
 
Liz Chileno and Sarina Reinertsen were defeated on Court 2, falling to Aaliyah Hohmann and Anastasia Khokhlova, to open things. The Mavericks trailed by one game for the majority of the match until the Bearkats finished off the set, 6-3.
 
The Mavericks retaliated on Court 3 and evened the score with a passionate win from Casasampere and Vergara, who fought back from a 5-1 deficit by claiming the final six games of the lone set.

With the first two results being split, the doubles point came down to Court 1 as Tara Gorinsek and Ana Paula Jimenez battled to a tiebreaker against Paula Cerda and Sahithi Vutukuru, who edged the Mavs 7-6 (5) for the 1-0 lead in the match.
 
UTA responded from the doubles loss with strong singles play, dropping only one match before securing their spot in the semifinals.
 
Reinertsen continued her dominant season on Court 3, tallying her second win of the season over Vutukuru. She finished off the first set without dropping a game before closing out a close second frame, 6-4, to put the Mavericks on the scoreboard and earn her 15th win of the season. 
 
Court 2 followed with Vergara earning her ninth-consecutive win in straight sets over Svaerd. Vergara took the early lead, going up 4-1 in the first set. Svaerd fought back to bring the score to 5-4, but Vergara was too much to overcome, closing out the set 6-4. Vergara finished the second set in dominant fashion, dropping only one game to Svaerd to give her team a 2-1 lead in the overall match.
 
The Bearkats evened the score with another win from Cerda over Chileno on Court 1. Cerda got off to a strong start, earning a 3-0 lead early in the first set. Chileno fought back with wins in the next two games before evening it at four. Cerda was too much to overcome, though, as she won the next two to take the opener. The next set followed in a similar manner with the two splitting the first eight games before Cerda finished it off, 6-4.
 
The Mavericks were quick to recover with Gorinsek earning her second win over Khokhlova on Court 2. The score stayed close in the first set with Khokhlova closing the one-game gap to force a tiebreaker that Gorinsek was able to secure for the 1-0 lead. She then got off to a strong start in the second set, pushing out to a 4-1 lead over Khokhlova, who responded by taking two more games before Gorinsek secured the lead for the Mavericks with a 6-3 win.
 
The final point came down to close matches on Courts 4 and 5.
 
Casasampere clinched the victory on Court 4, defeating Schwab in three sets to secure a spot in the semifinals for the Mavericks. She took the first set in dominant fashion without dropping a game. Schwab fought back to take the second, earning an early 3-1 lead and evening the score with a 6-3 win. The match came down to the third set, with Casasampere coming out strong to take the three-game lead. She allowed Schwab two games before closing out the set, 6-2, and the match for the win.
 
Court 5 went unfinished, with Jimenez up one set and in a tiebreaker for the second against Hohmann.
 
 
UT Arlington 4, Sam Houston 2
Doubles

1. Paula Cerda/Sahithi Vutukuru (SHSU) def. Tara Gorinsek/Ana Paula Jimenez (UTA) 7-6(5)
2. Aaliyah Hohmann/Anastasia Khokhlova (SHSU) def. Liz Chileno/Sarina Reinertsen (UTA) 6-3
3. Bruna Casasampere/Francisca Vergara (UTA) def.  Vianne Schwab/Linn Svaerd (SHSU) 7-5

Singles

1. Paula Cerda (SHSU) def. Liz Chileno (UTA) 6-4, 6-4
2. Tara Gorinsek (UTA) def. Anastasia Khokhlova (SHSU) 7-6, 6-3
3. Sarina Reinertsen (UTA) def. Sahithi Vutukuru (SHSU) 6-0, 6-4
4. Bruna Casasampere (UTA) def. Vianne Schwab (SHSU) 6-0, 3-6, 6-2
5. Unfinished
6. Francisca Vergara (UTA) def. Linn Svaerd (SHSU) 6-4, 6-1

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