The UTSA Roadrunners had their spring home opener on Feb. 3. The team returned home after clinching two road victories over Stephen F. Austin and Prairie View A&M to open the regular season.

The UTSA women’s tennis team were on a roll and hoped to start the season 3-0, but the Bearkats of Sam Houston State had other ideas and got the best of the ‘Runners on Saturday. The Roadrunners fell 6-1.

The Roadrunners (2-1) were handed their first loss in surprising fashion, as Sam Houston managed to hold the Roadrunners to only one victory in singles competition. This came as a stunner to the Roadrunners, as they had only lost three singles matches in their previous two matches. On this day, their strength seemed to turn to weakness.

Sam Houston (2-2) came out and took an advantage quick in the doubles competition, securing the first point before winning five of the six singles matchups. The Bearkats came in after two consecutive losses to Texas A&M (5-2) and The University of Houston (6-1). The Bearkats were looking for a victory to get their season back on track, and accomplished that goal with ease against UTSA. The singles matches were all won in dominant fashion. The biggest singles win for the Bearkats was Lusine Chobanyan defeating UTSA’s Sonia Madronal.

The Roadrunners took a trip down the road the next day to face the Cardinals of University of the Incarnate Word. The ‘Runners had a sense of urgency for this meet, not wanting to fall to .500 for the season.

The ‘Runners began the match with a bang by winning their first doubles competition of the year.

Even with a hot start and securing the first doubles point, the Cardinals did not go down without a fight. The singles competition was fierce this Sunday, as the two teams split the wins right down the middle. With each team capturing three points in the singles, the doubles tiebreaker victory was huge for the Roadrunners. UTSA took the victory and improved to (3-1) on the season.

The win by the ‘Runners was led by sophomore Laura Cabrera as she tallied her fourth win in singles play. Still undefeated, she looks to improve on the impressive nine wins she posted her freshman year. The biggest match of this meet again came at the hands of Sonia Madronal, as she got into another fierce duel, but unlike the match against Sam Houston, she would not walk away in defeat. After a long three sets, she secured her victory in the singles competition and secured the final point to put the team in the lead (4-3). The senior looks to put together a big season after eight singles and a handful of doubles victories last season.

The Lady Roadrunners will continue their push on the road as they play the next four matches before returning home to face Eastern Michigan on Feb. 23.