The UTSA tennis teams were in action this Sunday at home. The women’s team (1-3) started things off with a nail-biting victory over the Sam Houston State Bearkats (2-1) 4-3 to pick up their first victory of the season. Meanwhile, the men’s team finished the day off with a clean sweep of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros (1-4) 7-0. 

The women’s team got things off to a great start in their match by securing a quick doubles point. The Roadrunners pair of Aleksandra Zlatarova and Alexandra Weir swept past Sahithi Vutukuru and Andejla Vidovic in a clean 6-0. Meanwhile, UTSA’s Jasmin Starr and Sophie Omoworare defeated Petra Kaszas and Megan Basson 6-4 to hand UTSA the early match lead after the doubles point, 1-0. Entering singles play, UTSA needed that doubles point, as they were playing shorthanded, which immediately led to them surrendering a singles point to Sam Houston State via forfeit. Zlatarova continued her strong day with a victory over Basson in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. Weir scored another point for UTSA with a tight win over Isidora Zivkovic 7-6, 6-3. Starr then scored what ended up being the decisive point to win the match with a straight-set, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Vidovic. Sam Houston State clawed back a further two points with UTSA’s Eva Beyebach falling to Vutukuru 3-6, 1-6 and Omoworare losing to Sunskrithi Damera 3-6, 0-6. UTSA’s doubles point proved to be the difference in the end though, and the ‘Runners got their first win of the season by a final match score of 4-3. 

Following the women’s triumph, the men’s team then took to the courts and asserted their dominance over the Vaqueros. The Roadrunner team of Joao Ceolin and Tiago Torres dropped a surprising first match in doubles play to the team of Misha Kvantaliani and George Hutchings 2-6. Luckily, the rest of the team had their back, with Sebastian Rodriguez and Maxim Groysman defeating Alberto Mello and Carlo Izurieta 6-1, and Garret Skelly and Miguel Alonso beating Sam Whitehead and Chris Lawrance to win the doubles point for UTSA and go up 1-0 in the match. UTSA then put their foot firmly on the gas and pulled away in singles play. UTSA’s Danijal Muminovic got things started with a three-set victory over Whitehead, 6-3, 5-7, 1-0. Alonso then put UTSA on match point with a straight-set, 6-0, 6-3 victory over Michael Davis. Finally, Ceolin bounced back from his earlier doubles defeat to sweep past Kvantaliani 7-5, 6-2 giving UTSA the match win. The ‘Runners were not done yet, though, and they continued to power onward. Groysman picked up a straight-set, 6-4, 6-4 win over Lawrance, Toress defeated Hutchings in dominant fashion 6-1, 6-0 and Rodriguez finished off the 7-0 sweep with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Izurieta. 

The two teams will head out onto the road next week. First, the women’s team will travel to Fort Worth, Texas, for a match against the TCU Horned Frogs (4-1) on Thursday before traveling to Arlington, Texas, for a match on Sunday against the UT Arlington Mavericks (4-0). As for the men, they will head to Santa Barbara, Calif., for a pair of matches. They will first take on the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (2-1) on Friday before facing off against the Pacific University Boxers (0-0).