DENTON, Texas – The eighth-seeded UTSA women's tennis team opened up the C-USA Championships with a 4-1 win over No. 9 seed UAB on Thursday morning at Waranch Tennis Complex in Denton, Texas.
The Roadrunners took an early 1-0 advantage after winning the doubles point. The duo of Magda Tuells and Aleksandra Zlatarova defeated UAB's Sydney Clarke/Maggie White by 6-3 at the first court. Eva Beyebach and Adeliya Mukhutdinova then sealed the point with a 6-4 win over Vanessa Mellynchuk/Enya Ratkic at the third court.
Zlatarova opened singles play with a quick win at the top spot, defeating UAB's Adela Wasserbauerova by set scores of 6-0 and 6-3.
Alexandra Weir then followed that with a win at the second court as she battled and took down Clarke by set scores of 6-3 and 7-5, putting the Roadrunners just one point shy of an opening round sweep.
At the fifth spot, the Blazers got their lone point of the match. Stanislava Bobrovnikova fell to Ratkic by both sets of 6-2 to make the score 3-1, still in favor of UTSA.
Playing the third court, Fatima Gutierrez battled through a tough first set with Annalisa Smith but came out victorious by 7-6 (8). Gutierrez then fought to win the second set by 6-4, sealing the 4-1 win for UTSA over UAB in the first round of the C-USA Championships.
UTSA's record improves to 14-9 overall, while UAB ends its season with a 9-10 record.
With the first-round victory, the Roadrunners will advance to the quarterfinal round, facing No. 1 seed/No. 38 ranked FIU on Friday at 10 am. The last time that UTSA advanced to the C-USA Quarterfinals was in 2019. That postseason, the Roadrunners earned the No. 8 seed and defeated No. 9 seed Southern Miss in the first round, before falling to No. 1 seed Old Dominion in the quarterfinal.
No. 38 FIU ended the regular season with a 15-4 overall record, earning the top seed in the tournament. The Panthers defeated Florida Atlantic by 6-1 to cap the regular season. FIU's No. 1 singles player Yasmine Kabbaj totes a 9-5 record and currently is on a four-match winning streak. Two Panthers have double-digit wins, including No. 3 court Oyinlomo Quadre (12-2) and No. 6 court Salma Loudili (10-6). The Panthers have a .750 winning percentage in doubles action, fueled by the back two courts of No. 2 Kabbaj/Quadre (15-4) and No. 3 Loudili/Katerina Mandelikova (13-4).
The winner of this quarterfinal will go on to face the winner of the quarterfinal between No. 4 Louisiana Tech and No. 5 Florida Atlantic in the semifinal round on Saturday at 12 p.m.
-UTSA-
