Texas State drops home opener against Tarleton State

Texas State (1-3) tennis dropped their home opener 4-3 to Tarleton State (4-2) despite a late comeback on Saturday, Feb. 11 at the Bobcat Tennis Complex.

“Today was another tough loss,” said tennis head coach Kendall Brooks. “I felt like we started flat and slow in the doubles and that trickled into the beginning of a lot of our singles matches. We were able to rally and fought hard to win the match, but ultimately came up short. This team has a lot more that they are capable of, and I am confident we will get over the hump soon.”

This is the second 4-3 loss the Bobcats have had so far in the season, and third time not clinching the doubles point.

In doubles portion on the matchup, the team of Kate Malazonia and Mae McCutcheon dropped the first doubles match of the day 6-2 against Martha Makantasi and Elsa Boisson on the top court.

Tarleton’s Ximena Morales and Clara Sobius clinched the doubles point for the Texans in their 6-3 win over Kiana Graham and Sofia Fortuno on line two. Jadeh Chan and Emily Niers were down 4-5 when play was stopped.

In singles action, freshman Andrea Pineda earned the first point of the match for the Bobcats with her 6-3, 6-2 win against Ximena Morales on court five.

Pineda now has a twomatch win streak in singles and is the only Bobcat to have a win streak.

Kiana Graham faced back-to-back reigning Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week Martha Makantasi on the top court.

Graham put up a fight in the first set going to a tie-break, but ultimately lost 7-6 (7-2), 6-0 to give the Texans its third point of the match.

After battling back from the first set Sofia Fortuno defeated Clara Sobius 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 on court six to give Texas State some momentum.

Tarleton State won the match after picking up their fourth point when Emma Persson topped Emily Niers 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 on court two.

Kate Malazonia picked up the final singles win of the day over Celia Vaudiau 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 on court three.

Up next for Texas State is another home contest against UT-Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros.

Match starts this Saturday at 1 p.m. from the Bobcat Tennis Complex.