The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Rice
Women's Tennis rallies to 4-3 win over Rice
03.13.2017 | Women's Tennis
Senior Neda Koprcina closes out three-set win to cap Longhorns’ rally over the Owls.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 32 Texas (6-4) dueled No. 41 Rice (9-3) for over four hours and rallied to a 4-3 victory over the Owls Monday evening at UT's Whitaker Courts.
Texas won the doubles point only to see Rice post singles wins at the first, sixth and third positions to assume a 3-1 match lead.
Texas sophomore Katie Poluta commenced the Longhorns rally with her 6-4, 0-6, 6-1 win over Alison Ho at fifth singles. UT freshman Anna Turati split her first two sets with Rice's Fernanda Astete and trailed 4-3 in the third set.
Turati won the ensuing three games to close out a 6-4 third-set win and even the team score at three. Texas turned to its lone senior, Neda Koprcina, to close out the win for the Longhorns.
Koprcina surrendered the first in a tiebreaker to Wendy Zhang at second singles before forcing a third set by claiming the second set, 6-4. Koprcina broke Zhang for a 2-1 third-set lead before Zhang returned the favor. Koprcina responded with another break for 3-2, then held serve and broke Zhang once more for 5-2.
Zhang stayed in the match with a service break and held serve for 5-4, but Koprcina closed out the match in her next service game and dealt the Owls a 4-3 defeat.
Texas opens conference play this weekend at Oklahoma State (March 17) and Oklahoma (March 19)
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Howard Joffe
Today's match was as exciting a collegiate dual as one can encounter. In the end we were able to get over the finish line with a cruel set of circumstances for Rice. It's clear that Rice is a fabulous team that is coached superbly. For my part, I was just in awe of how tough the Longhorns ladies were today. Anna Turati, Katie Poluta and Neda Koprcina mounted a comeback that I will never forget.
No. 32 Texas 4, No. 41 Rice 3
Doubles – Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3
1 No. 52 Dani Wagland/Petra Granic (UT) def. No. 80 Lindsey Hodge/Wendy Zhang (Rice), 6-2
2 No. 41 Alison Ho/Priya Niezgoda (Rice) def. Neda Koprcina/Anna Turati (UT), 6-2
3 Bianca Turati/Katie Poluta (UT) def. Savannah Durkin/Katherine Ip (Rice), 6-4
Singles – Order of Finish: 1, 6, 3, 5, 4, 2
1 Lindsey Hodge (Rice) def. No. 26 Bianca Turati (UT), 6-3, 6-3
2 No. 87 Neda Koprcina (UT) def. Wendy Zhang (Rice), 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4
3 Katherine Ip (Rice) def. No. 62 Petra Granic (UT), 7-6 (0), 6-4
4 Anna Turati (UT) def. Fernanda Astete (Rice), 6-2, 2-6, 6-4
5 Katie Poluta (UT) def. Alison Ho (Rice), 6-4, 0-6, 6-1
6 Savannah Durkin (Rice) def. Dani Wagland (UT), 6-3, 6-4
Players Mentioned
