Coming off their first loss of the season, the UTSA women’s tennis team beat the University of North Texas 4-3 on Saturday at the UTSA Tennis Center.
The Roadrunners (14-1) dominated the Eagles (5-6) across the courts, taking the first singles game. Sophomore Ekua Youri, junior Letizia Corsini, freshman Natalia Guerrero and junior Arina Babenko won their singles matches by capitalizing on the Mean Green’s inability to pick up center court low balls and drop shots. For a third time this season, with 3-3 on the line, the match came down to a clinch point on court three, but this time, Babenko became the deciding point.
“The team just stepped up today,” coach Ki Kroll said. “Doubles can always be a little up and down, but I feel like we’re good doubles players. We started a little slow in doubles, but we recovered, and we were able to close it out. It’s just a good team win.”
Cross-court shots played a factor in Babenko’s success, but the Russian beat Stanislava Shulzhenko by drilling balls down the line — an area the Ukrainian struggled to maneuver about as freely as Babenko did.
“You don’t need to be better, just good,” North Texas coach Amanda Stone said to Shulzhenko before she lost a point to Babenko.
Despite faltering in the second game, Babenko beat Stanislava to win in three sets, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.
“The girls were just fighting like crazy, trying to pull things out,” Kroll said. “Some of them are coming off a loss and then having to turn it around and try to pull off this one; they did it.”
Though Corsini won her first game, the Italian struggled to hold off Stedfany Nformi in their second game, but she found her turning point when Nformi relinquished hers in the third. Corsini fought back from being down two points. With a game point on the line, Corsini hit back lobs and picked up drop shots to combat Nformi, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 — both offensively and defensively — claiming a second point for the Roadrunners and her first singles win since Feb. 8.
Coming off a doubles loss, Youri was determined to take back court one and marked her territory by claiming an early 2-point deficit over Gianna Pielet, the same woman who beat her in doubles. A visibly frustrated Pielet beat her tennis bag five times with her racket during their break, yet could not translate her off-court aggression on the court and dropped both her games to Youri 6-4, 6-4.
“They really fought hard,” Kroll said. “I think that’s where we start getting those experience points. We need to be a tougher team going forward.”
The Roadrunners will take on Rice University at 11 a.m. Saturday at the UTSA Tennis Center.
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