The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Rice
No. 17 Women's Tennis tops No. 22 Rice, 4-1
01.26.2014 | Women's Tennis
Longhorns advance to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship for a third consecutive season.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 17 Texas (3-0) overpowered Rice in doubles and claimed three of four singles decisions on its way to a 4-1 win over the visiting Owls (1-1) Sunday afternoon at UT's Penick-Allison Tennis Center.
UT wins the Austin site of the national ITA Kick-Off Weekend event and earns an automatic berth into the ITA National Team Indoor Championship at The University of Virginia. The Longhorns will make their third consecutive appearance in the 16-team bracketed event, which runs Feb. 7-10. All 16 teams will play at least three matches.
Texas won all three doubles matches to win the doubles point and assume a 1-0 lead. UT's Ratnika Batra and Lina Padegimaite led off with a convincing 6-1 win at third doubles over the Owls' Alison Ho and Solo Zinko.
Texas' Breaunna Addison and Pippa Horn held a 5-1 lead at first doubles over Rice's Natalie Beazant and Dominique Harmath before the Owls rallied to even the match at five. Addison held serve for a 6-5 Texas lead, and UT broke the Owls' serve and won the match at about the same moment UT's Elizabeth Begley and Neda Koprcina won at No. 2 doubles. Begley and Koprcina won by a 6-3 count over Rice's Katherine Ip and Liat Zimmermann at the second slot, while Addison and Horn won a moment later at No. 1, 7-5.
Koprcina improved to 2-0 in dual matches and posted a 6-4, 6-0 win over Rice's Zimmermann at third singles to stake Texas to a 2-0 lead. The match at first singles featured a pair of 2013 ITA singles All-Americans in UT's Addison and Rice's Beazant. Addison claimed the first set, 6-2, but Beazant rallied and took the second, 6-3.
The ITA's experimental format in play for January and February matches calls for third sets to be played in a 10-point super-tiebreaker format in lieu of a full set. Addison edged Beazant in the super-tiebreaker, 10-8 to give Texas a 3-0 lead.
The matches at sixth, second and fourth singles also progressed to third set super-tiebreakers. At sixth singles, Rice's Ho defeated UT's Juliana Gajic by a 10-1 count in the super-tiebreaker to cut the Texas lead to 3-1. Begley and Rice's Harmath went to a super-tiebreaker after Begley rallied from a first-set loss to win the second set, 6-3. Begley missed a match-opportunity after swinging a volley into the net, but Harmath found the net on the ensuing point to give Begley a 10-8 win and the match to Texas. The remaining matches were suspended.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Patty Fendick-McCain
On the ITA Kick-Off Weekend wins: I am really pleased. We went to Miami last weekend and we were a little rusty. We hadn't seen the girls for about a month because we shut down the week before finals and then we didn't see them after finals. Fortunately, they worked pretty hard at home over the break and just needed to shake the rust off in Miami. We didn't get as many matches and many wins as we wanted to down there but then we came back and addressed some things and then they came on really strong this weekend. Really pleased. This was the toughest host site of any of them and we knew we were going to have our hands full. I am really proud that they rose to the occasion.
On the adjustments the team made to push a few matches into third sets: We struggled in the super-tiebreakers, and we struggled in tiebreaks last weekend, so we addressed that in practice all week long and played a bunch of them. They knew it was going to come down to that, especially after seeing the results yesterday where the Rice-FSU match came down to super-tiebreakers. They were ready for it mentally. I think if you go into that situation and you are not mentally prepared to play a super-tiebreaker to win it, then it makes it tougher. But, they were ready to do it.
Texas senior Elizabeth Begley
On Texas' win over Rice: It was definitely a close match. I think the doubles was something to be talked about. I think we all played really well in doubles. It was great to win all three. (Winning) the two tiebreakers….that was something we struggled with in Miami, and to come out on top today with two wins in tiebreakers was pretty awesome. We have been working on them. It is nice to see that when you work on something during the week that it shows during the weekends.
On advancing to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship: It's always tough. You know you will have three tough matches at least, and you are lucky if you get a fourth one. So I think we are going to do play a lot of matches, play a lot of doubles. It is a little bit different because we will be indoors there and we were playing outdoors here, so we need to get used to that (indoor) type of atmosphere. The balls come a little bit quicker (indoors). We will go to our indoor courts to get used to the noise, because it sounds a little different inside. It is a different type of tennis.
No. 17 Texas 4, No. 22 Rice 1
Doubles – Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1
1 No. 21 Breaunna Addison/Pippa Horn (Texas) def. Natalie Beazant/Dominique Harmath (Rice) – 7-5
2 Elizabeth Begley/Neda Koprcina (Texas) def. Katherine Ip/Liat Zimmermann (Rice) – 6-3
3 Ratnika Batra/Lina Padegimaite (Texas) def. Alison Ho/Solo Zinko (Rice) – 6-1
Singles – Order of Finish: 3, 1, 6, 2
1. No. 22 Breaunna Addison (Texas) def. Natalie Beazant (Rice) 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 (10-8)??
2. Elizabeth Begley (Texas) def. Dominique Harmath (Rice) 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-8)??
3. Neda Koprcina (Texas) def. Liat Zimmermann (Rice) 6-4, 6-0??
4. No. 77 Ratnika Batra (Texas) vs. Kim Anicete (Rice) 4-6, 6-3, 0-0 (4-8) susp. ??
5. Pippa Horn (Texas) vs. Katherine Ip (Rice) 7-6 (3), 2-2 susp. ??
6. Alison Ho (Rice) def. Juliana Gajic (Texas) 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (10-1)
