SAN ANTONIO — UTSA women’s tennis executed a wire-to-wire 4-0 victory against Stephen F. Austin University on Friday at the UTSA Tennis Center.
The Roadrunners (5-5) won the doubles point, then got three singles victories in quick succession to end the match against Stephen F. Austin (0-5). Junior Akari Tomoyose and sophomore Aoka Nagasawa starred in the victory, winning as a doubles team and individually. Tomoyose and Nagasawa were the first two players to win singles matches, making the score 3-0 in UTSA’s favor. Freshman Giuliana Giardina won 6-3 and 6-1 to complete the sweep. UTSA had lost four in a row on the road before Friday’s victory on Main Campus.
“We came off of a really tough road trip, highly ranked teams. We’re just trying to do the best we can and get a lot of experience with our young team,” coach Ki Kroll said after the match. “It’s all about effort, trying to be loud and positive and trying to work through problems. Sometimes, we can’t and we figure it out for the next time. As we keep getting better, the wins are going to come.”
While the score shows a sweep, almost every set was contentious against the Lumberjacks. In doubles, Tomoyose and Nagasawa were down 0-2 before winning five games in a row and ending the set 6-3. Sophomore Valeria Sanchez and freshman Laia Tarazona Peyro then broke serve to win their set 6-4 and end the doubles play with UTSA up 1-0. In singles, the ‘Runners started strong across the board. Four players out of six won their first set, including Nagasawa, who came back from down 2-5 to win the first set 7-5. Nagasawa won 11 games in a row to take the match 7-5, 6-0. Tomoyose won convincingly, 6-2, 6-3, before Giardina closed out the contest.
“All we expect them to do is keep fighting and work their way back in,” Kroll said. “We’re working really hard in practice, and everybody really puts a great effort in. We’re pretty resilient – we were down in a few matches and we just kept fighting.”
The ‘Runners are 5-0 at home and 0-5 on the road or at neutral sites. They play their next six matches at the UTSA Tennis Center.
“It’s always exciting to be back home because we do get great support,” Kroll said after the match. “A lot of people come out and help us get through these matches. We all love it, and there’s no place like home.”
UTSA has their next match against Tarleton State University at 2 p.m. Sunday at the UTSA Tennis Center.
