| Junior Holly Phillips' winning ways continued on Friday at Texas State. |
SAN MARCOS ? After playing five straight road matches, the Texas State women's tennis team found itself in unfamiliar territory in its Southland Conference match against I-35 rival UTSA on Friday afternoon at the Bobcat Tennis Center.
The Bobcats (9-6, 5-4 SLC) had won the doubles point in each of their previous six matches, but they found themselves entering singles play down 1-0 after UTSA (14-6, 8-2) won two of the three doubles matches.
Texas State's lone doubles victory came in the No. 2 contest, as Ashley Ellis and Nyssa Peele defeated senior Monika Drabkova and sophomore Carolina Dedering, 8-6. In the other two doubles matches, Andrea Giraldo and Lainy Chafitz suffered an 8-5 loss against senior Karen Scida and freshman Micaela Silva, while Mackenzie Farmer and Kiki Kruse dropped a 9-8 decision against senior Nathalie Wallin and junior Holly Phillips, which was the pair's 11th win in a row.
The Bobcats tried to get back in contention by winning three singles matches.
Ellis improved to 11-4 this spring after defeating Wallin, 6-4, 6-3 in the No. 2 contest, while Kiki Kruse improved her record to 11-3, including a 9-1 mark in SLC play, after she defeated Dedering, 6-4, 6-2, in the No. 5 tilt.
However, UTSA maintained its one-point advantage when Drabkova beat Chafitz, 6-3, 6-2, and Silva defeated Farmer, 6-4, 6-2.
Giraldo tied the score at three after downing Scida, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, in the top singles match.
However, UTSA regained the lead, clinched the victory and snapped the Bobcats' four-match winning streak when Phillips outlasted Peele at the No. 3 slot. Peele won the first set 7-5, and was leading in the second before Phillips came back to win 7-6 after winning a tiebreaker 8-6. She carried that momentum into the third set and won the match, her 16th straight, with a 6-1 decision in the final set.