WACO, Texas – The UTSA women’s tennis team went back to work against high-level competition over the week at Baylor’s H-E-B Invitational, pitting the Roadrunners against opposition from Arizona, Baylor, Illinois, Nebraska, Rice, Colorado, Texas A&M, Houston and SMU.
With several Roadrunners making their first tournament appearances of the year, UTSA weathered a tough start on Friday, seeing close losses down to the wire but bouncing back to successful Saturday and Sunday outcomes on significant wins against power programs.
Leading the way among UTSA’s biggest victors of the weekend, Valeria Sanchez finished the weekend 3-0 as a singles flight winner, topping Baylor’s Lindsay Patton (6-3, 5-0, ret.), Rice’s Anushka Ashar (6-3, 6-1) and also Valentina Ponce Serrano (6-3, 6-3). In addition, Arina Babenko worked past Houston’s Iva Sepa (6-2, 6-3) and rallied to defeat Arizona’s Karissa Ghigiarelli (4-6, 7-5, 10-8). Ekua Youri topped Rice’s Nithesa Selvaraj (7-5, 6-4) and wrapped with a solid finish against Nebraska’s Tiziana Rossini (3-6, 6-2, 10-4).
As the Roadrunners work out different doubles tandem combinations through the fall, UTSA still found some pairs success in Waco, with Natalia Castaneda Guerrero joining Babenko to down Nebraska’s Reya Lee Coe/Lucy Loy (6-4) and then SMU’s Caroline McGinley/Arianna Stavropoulos (6-0). In Friday’s doubles, UTSA went 3-3 with Letizia Corsini and Youri also defeating Colorado’s Pia Rebec/Anya Nelson (6-0), with Sanchez joining Vittoria Baccino in downing a Baylor/Rice tandem of Lindsay Patton/Ashar (6-2).
Up next: UTSA will travel to Abilene, Texas, for the Wildcat Invitational, running from Sept. 27-29 at Abilene Christian.
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