A&M-Corpus Christi, New Orleans Set for Saturday Semifinal
Southland Conference
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BEAUMONT, Texas - Both No. 1 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and No. 5 New Orleans bounced back after dropping the doubles point to take their respective matches and move on to Saturday's semifinals at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center in Beaumont, Texas.
The Islanders and Privateers will compete at 2 p.m. tomorrow. The winner of that game will contest the winner of No. 2 Lamar and No. 3 Central Arkansas in the Southland Conference Championship on Sunday at 2 p.m.
No. 1 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. No. 8 Stephen F. Austin
It took all three doubles matches for Stephen F. Austin to head into singles play with the 1-0 lead on the top-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi squad. The Lady Jacks' Liza Aginskaya and Darinka Tiboldi pulled off the 7-5 defeat over the Islanders' Hortense Boscher and Louise Trigona to clinch the doubles point.
Maria Maldonado of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi evened the match at 1-1 with her straight-set 6-2, 6-3 victory on Sian Payne. Boscher claimed a win in the top flight 6-3, 6-3 with teammate Judit Vives finishing next with a 6-1, 7-5 win. Tiboldi provided the lone singles win for SFA in a three-set 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 victory at the No. 3 slot over Trigona, the 2017 Southland Freshman of the Year.
It was the Islanders' All-Conference First Team Singles No. 6 slot player, Mariana Vicens Miquel, who would clinch the spot in tomorrow's semifinal. After winning the first set 6-4 before dropping the second one 4-6, the sophomore from Spain routed the 2017 Southland Newcomer of the Year, Kaja Ljubic, 6-2.
No. 4 McNeese vs. No. 5 New Orleans
It came down to the No. 3 singles to determine who would advance to Saturday's next round. With the team match even at 3-3, New Orleans' Anna Segarra Rius was into her third set with the All-Conference First Team No. 3 singles player, McNeese's Hannah Brett. Rius had given up the first set 4-6 but battled back in the second to capture the set 7-5. The senior from Barcelona, Spain, took the third set 6-1 to send the Privateers into the semifinals.
Rius and teammate Anja Luethi had lost their No. 1 doubles match to Brett and Sarah Jurakova before New Orleans' Trang Dao and Brittany Johnson dropped their match 6-5 to the Cowgirls' Giovanna Fioretti and Phonexay Chitdara to give McNeese the doubles point.
The singles matches went back-and-forth with Jurakova putting the Cowgirls up 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Luethi. Dao and teammate Claudette Gilhespie evened the match at 2-2 with victories in the top flight and No. 4 slot, respectively. The Cowgirls' Chitdara defeated the Privateers Yasmine Rashad won 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, but McNeese's Stella Carra wasn't able to put the match away, falling 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) to Johnson.
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