FORT WORTH – The No. 25 TCU women’s tennis team dropped a hard fought match to the No. 26 Texas Longhorns, 4-3 Sunday at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
The loss took the Horned Frogs to 17-5 overall and 6-3 in Big 12 play. Texas improved to 14-10 overall and 7-2 in conference play.
“It was a tough one today,” TCU head coach Dave Borelli said. “Each match we played was real close. We need to get everyone healthy and hopefully we can all be playing well at the same time come next week at the Big 12 tournament.”
After dropping the doubles point, TCU finally got on the board at No. 3 singles via Simona Parajova’s 6-3, 7-5 win over UT’s Elizabeth Begley. She closed out the regular season winning six of her last eight singles matches.
With the match result already going in favor of Texas, the No. 6 singles competition went to a super tiebreaker after TCU’s Kelsey Sundaram and Lara Groenvynck of UT split the first two sets. A back-and-forth affair eventually broke the way of Sundaram as she took the super tiebreak 11-9 to officially win 5-7, 6-1, 1-0 (9). Sundaram won six consecutive singles matches, five in Big 12 play, to finish out the regular season.
The Horned Frogs picked up their third team point at No. 5 singles from Millie Nichols, who won via a Lina Padegimaite retirement. Nichols had fought her way back into the match after dropping the first set 2-6. She took the second set 6-1 and fought back to tie the third 2-2.
Though TCU did not clinch the doubles point, they still picked up a big upset at No. 1 singles. The duo of Olivia Smith and Stefanie Tan came back to stun Breaunna Addison and Noel Scott, ranked as the No. 13 doubles pairing by the ITA, 9-8 (7). It was only the fourth time all season Smith and Tan have teamed up for doubles.
The Longhorns scored big wins in the singles competition to put the result out of TCU's reach. A notable event was Aeriel Ellis of Texas completed an undefeated Big 12 campaign in singles with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Smith. At No. 4 singles, Noel Scott of Texas ended Monkia Sirilova’s perfect Big 12 campaign with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 victory.
The Horned Frogs will next be in action Friday at the Big 12 Championship hosted by the University of Oklahoma. TCU’s opponent and time of the match will be announced in the coming days.
No. 26 Texas 4, No. 25 TCU 3
SINGLES
No. 1 – No. 36 Breaunna Addison (UT) def. No. 45 Stefanie Tan (TCU), 6-0, 2-6, 6-4
No. 2 – No. 38 Aeriel Ellis (UT) def. No. 100 Olivia Smith (TCU), 6-2, 6-1
No. 3 – Simona Parajova (TCU) def. Elizabeth Begley (UT), 6-3, 7-5
No. 4 – Noel Scott (UT) def. Monika Sirilova (TCU), 4-6, 6-0, 6-3
No. 5 – Millie Nichols (TCU) won by retirement Lina Padegimate (UT), 2-6, 6-1, 2-2
No. 6 – Kelsey Sundaram (TCU) def. Lana Groenvynck (UT), 5-7, 6-1, 1-0 (9)
DOUBLES
No. 1 – Olivia Smith/Stefanie Tan (TCU) def. #13 Breaunna Addison/Noel Scott (UT), 9-8 (7)
No. 2 – Elizabeth Begley/Aeriel Ellis (UT) def. Monika Sirilova/Kelsey Sundaram (TCU), 9-7
No. 3 – Annat Rabinovich/Lina Padegimaite (UT) def. Millie Nichols/Simona Parajova (TCU), 8-4
Match Notes
TCU: 17–5 (6-3 Big 12); National Ranking #25
Texas: 14-10 (7-2 Big 12); National Ranking #26
Order of Finish: Singles (2,3,4,1,5,6); Doubles (3,2,1)
