Women’s tennis beats UTSA in C-USA opener, falls to No. 7 A&M

By Cadan Hanson     3/1/22 11:39pm

Fresh off of a 4-0 sweep of Louisiana State University, the Rice women’s tennis team entered their first conference match of the season on Friday against the University of Texas, San Antonio. The Owls, who recently ranked No. 57 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, split their weekend matches, defeating the Roadrunners 5-0 and falling short against No. 7 Texas A&M University 1-4.

The Owls started the weekend on Friday against UTSA in the Boniuk Family Tennis Center, forced inside because of the cold temperatures. However, the cold didn’t stop the Owls from getting out to a hot start, securing their fifth straight doubles point with a pair of 6-2 victories. In the singles matches, freshman Allison Zipoli, the reigning C-USA Women’s Tennis Athlete of the Week, secured a point, winning 6-2, 6-1. Meanwhile junior Maria Budin and freshman Saara Orav completed the team sweep with a pair of 6-1, 6-1 victories. After the match, head coach Elizabeth Schmidt was very happy with how the team adjusted to the last minute location change. 

“I thought we played a solid match,” Schmidt said. “It is our [first] match we played indoors this season and the team did a nice job adjusting to that change.”

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On Sunday, the Owls traveled up to College Station to take on the No. 7 Aggies. The Owls started off the match where they left off Friday afternoon, with Budin and senior Diae El Jardi defeating the No. 3 doubles team in the country in a tiebreak. The Owls secured a second doubles win with Orav and senior Victoria Smirnova, giving them an early 1-0 lead. After the match, Schmidt was happy with the performance of the doubles matches, especially against the strong competition.

“[I] was pleased we were able to get the doubles point,” Schmidt said. “Improving our doubles has been a point of emphasis for us this season and it was good to see it come together against a top 10 in the country team. And, Maria and Diae defeating the [No. 3] doubles team in the country was excellent. They really played disciplined aggressive doubles from start to finish.” 

The Owls were not able to hold the early lead and fell to the Aggies after a tough singles portion in which A&M quickly won four matches to clinch a 4-1 win. According to Schmidt, the effort the Owls displayed in the match was positive, regardless of the outcome.

“Both [Smirnova] and [Orav] did a nice job getting those hard-fought [first] sets in singles,” Schmidt said.  “[It was a] tough day for us in singles … but [I] definitely think there is a lot to build on from what we saw.”

The pair of matches over the weekend, brought the Owls to 6-2 on the season. The team had entered the weekend on a four match winning streak, having won every game since a 2-4 loss to Southern Methodist University in January. Prior to the SMU loss, the Owls had beaten Lamar University 6-1 in their first match following the tournament-only portion of their season in the fall. Going forward, the team has 12 more matches scheduled before the conference championships in late April. Schmidt said that she hopes the Owls can continue to bring the energy that they’ve had recently as they head into the heart of their season.

“I thought we had good energy on all the courts throughout the match,” Schmidt said. “That will be important as we continue into the second half of the season and postseason. Our overall goal is always to continue to grow and improve with each match we play.”

The Owls return home to take the courts Wednesday against No. 17 Baylor University at 1 p.m.

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