UTSA beat the University of Denver for the first time in program history with a 4-3 victory on Sunday at the UTSA Tennis Center.
Overshadowed by a 0-2 record against Denver, the Roadrunners (15-2) gave the Pioneers (6-8) a run for their money and added another mark to their win column. While Denver proved triumphant in doubles, the Pioneers moved better as a unit than they did as individuals and lost to UTSA through singles matches following an intoxicating third-set singles showdown.
“We’re a team of fighters,” coach Ki Kroll said. “Everybody fights hard, and that’s the whole thing; they fight for each other and they play hard for each other. That’s how we’ve gotten those big 4-3 wins.”
The match came down to the wire as the two teams leveled the playing field with a 3-3 tie as freshman Natalia Castaneda Guerrero was denoted as the final decision point. The Córdoba native dropped her first set and won her second, but the real battle arrived after she let go of her 5-2 lead in the third set. Narrowly leading with a score of 5-4 and a win on the line, Castaneda Guerrero had to close out the match against fellow freshman Natálie Cinková.
“My team was always supporting me, and I felt that support and that helped me,” Castaneda Guerrero said. “I was nervous because I was 5-2, 5-3, 5-4, and I thought, ‘You need to close now, come on you can do it’, I forgot about everything else and I focused, I was brave and at the end I closed it and it was great.”
Through long, windy rallies and a final swing from Cinková that landed outside the sideline, Castaneda Guerrero won 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to earn her sixth singles win and the team’s first win against the Pioneers.
“Wow, I didn’t know that,” Castaneda Guerrero said after she was told that this was the team’s first win against Denver. “That feels great!”
“We kept that from them,” Kroll said as he chimed in.
Juniors Letizia Corsini and Arina Babenko, followed by sophomore Vittoria Baccino, took the wheel on their courts and steered their counterparts toward first set losses.
Babenko beat one half of the No. 53 doubles duo — junior Marley Lambert — in a two-set match 6-3, 6-2. As per usual, Baccino put on a show with a first set tie-breaker but led Claudia Martinez de Velasco through a quick second set, closing out the match with a drop shot to win 7 (7) – 6 (3), 6-2. Corsini was on her way to her quickest home win when her opponent retired due to a medical injury. Nonetheless, she won a point for the ‘Runners, finishing with a single set score of 6-3.
In singles play, the Roadrunners have secured 58 victories while falling short in only 22 matches. Meanwhile, in doubles competition, they have built a solid 28-15 record.
UTSA will host the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley at 11 a.m. on Tuesday at the UTSA Tennis Center.
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