|
Frogs
continue winning streak Head coach Roland Ingram said there is a secret to his women’s tennis team, but he doesn’t know what that secret is. Texas-Arlington couldn’t figure out that secret either Thursday as the 25th-ranked Frogs blew past the 66th-ranked Mavericks, 5-2 despite gusting 23-30 mph winds at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. With the victory, the Horned Frogs concluded their regular season on a 14-match winning streak, while going a perfect 9-0 at home.
“If someone told me this team would win 14 matches in a row, I would not have believed them in a heart beat,” Ingram said. “This is an historic year for us, because this is the first time in women’s tennis history that the team has gone undefeated at home.” Despite recording a bit of history, TCU struggled at the opening of the contest by dropping the No. 1 doubles match to the Mavericks but rebounded by winning the other two doubles matches en route to capturing the doubles point. TCU lost both its No. 1 and No. 2 singles matches but won at the No. 3 through 6 singles spots. Freshman Paty Aburto, who is ranked 66th in the nation, lost to Marketa Cizova, 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (4) at the No. 2 spot, but Ingram was not disappointed with her performance. “If all my players played like that and lost every time, I would be happy every time as well,” Ingram said. “She played a hell of a match, and I think she will be an All-American before she leaves TCU.” Freshman Karolina Roubickova clinched her ninth consecutive victory as she defeated freshman Jika Vetrovcova in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, at the No. 5 singles spot. Roubickova improved to 25-4 and has won 17 of her last 18 matches. “This was a fairly easy match from the beginning,” Roubickova said. “I did not have much trouble at all. I think that everyone is playing, especially in singles, well at this point in the season.” UTA head coach Christian Wassment said the match was tough, but it could have gone either way. “When a team wins its No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles match as we did, you automatically feel a victory near by,” he said. “With (TCU), you can’t have that feeling. We played tough throughout the match, but their depth was key in the match.” Ingram said he hopes that the Frogs can keep that secret unknown at least through April 29, when TCU defends its conference title at the Western Athletic Conference tournament in Fresno, Calif. “We are undefeated in WAC play right now, but it doesn’t matter much when the tournament comes along,” he said. “I am going to knock on wood when I say this, but nothing can happen right now or in the tournament that will make this a bad year.” |
