SMU Defeats North Texas
DALLAS (SMU) – The SMU women’s tennis team won its third consecutive match in an almost three and a half hour 4-3 win over the North Texas Mean Green at the SMU Tennis Complex on Tuesday night.
The Mustangs needed multiple comebacks to earn their win as the team came back from down 3-2 and Dasha Sharapova earned the match clinching win after being down a set and down 5-2 in the second set.
“I knew the match was tight the whole time, just looking at the scores as I was playing,” Sharapova said. “Initially my goal was just to stay out there as long as possible, then things unfolded the way they did and I was able to pull out the win.”
Sharapova’s 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 win came from the No. 3 position in the singles lineup against UNT’s Nastya Shestakova. The match took over two hours to complete and was the only match left playing before the second set was won by Sharapova winning a tiebreak 7-5.
“Competition gives me more energy and all of my teammates cheering me on made
me more excited as the match went on,” Sharapova said.
The match was tied at 3-3 by a win from Mary Wright at the No. 5 by a score of 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 over UNT’s Minying Liang.
“I thought Dasha’s match could have been ending soon and that the match would come down to myself and Macie [Elliott],” Wright said. “The rest of the team getting behind us really gave me an energy boost to finish out my match.”
Macie Elliott’s match from the No. 4 position went three sets against UNT’s Agustina Valenzuela but Valenzuela came out on top 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to force the 3-2 lead for North Texas. The Mean Green also earned singles wins from their top two players of Maria Kononova 7-5, 6-2 overHristina Dishkova (No. 1) and Tamuna Kutubidze 6-3, 6-1 over Yana Erkeeva (No. 2).
SMU earned the doubles point during the match as No. 1 pair of Vaszilisza Bulgakova and Dishkova won 6-2 over Kononova and Shestakova with No. 3 pair of Elliott and Ana Perez-Lopez won 6-1 over Laura Arciniegas and Alexis Thoma.
Perez-Lopez also won the first singles point of the night for the Mustangs, beating Thoma 6-2, 6-3. SMU women’s tennis will hit the road for their next match against UT-Arlington on Thursday before hosting Senior Day on Sunday against UTEP.
