The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas Tech (Big 12 Championships semifinals)
No. 24 Women's Tennis falls to No. 7 Texas Tech, 4-2 in Big 12 Championships semifinals
04.29.2017 | Women's Tennis
Longhorns pick up wins from senior Neda Koprcina and freshman Petra Granic.
NORMAN, Okla. – No. 24 Texas (13-8) collected singles wins from senior Neda Koprcina and freshman Petra Granic, but seventh-ranked and top-seeded Texas Tech knocked off the fourth-seeded Longhorns by a 4-2 count Saturday in the semifinals of the Big 12 Championships. Texas Tech takes on the winner of today's Oklahoma State-Baylor match in Sunday's final.
Persistent rain forced all of Saturday's men's and women's matches indoors at OU's Headington Family Tennis Center. Given the availability of only six courts for the day's three scheduled matches, the Texas-Texas Tech contest began with singles instead of doubles.
Granic put the Horns on the board first with her straight-sets win over Tech's Alex Valenstein at third singles. Granic broke Valenstein's serve for a 4-2 first-set lead, then held serve and broke Valenstein once more to take the set, 6-2. Granic broke for 3-1 in the second set and finished off the match, 6-2 to give Texas a 1-0 lead.
Moments later, her fellow countrywoman Koprcina locked up a win at second singles to give the Horns a 2-0 lead. Taking on the Lady Raiders' 62nd-ranked Felicity Maltby, Koprcina broke for a 5-2 first-lead and closed out the set, 6-3. Koprcina broke for a 5-3 second-set lead and held serve to close out her win.
Texas Tech answered with victories on the four remaining singles courts to clinch the team win. Tech's ninth-ranked Gabriela Talaba dealt UT freshman Bianca Turati a 6-2, 6-2 defeat at first singles, and Tech evened the match behind Sabrina Federici's 6-4, 6-0 win over Anna Turati at fourth singles.
At sixth singles, UT junior Dani Wagland took the first set from Tech's Katelyn Jackson, 6-4. Jackson forced a third set with her 6-3 second-set win. Jackson broke Wagland and held serve for 2-0 in the third set and later finished off the set, 6-2 to give the Lady Raiders a 3-2 lead.
The deciding match came down to fifth singles, where UT sophomore Daniella Roldan and Texas Tech's Sarah Dvorak split the first two sets. Roldan broke Dvorak for a 1-0 third-set lead, but Dvorak produced two service breaks and twice held serve for a 4-1 lead. Dvorak held serve the rest of the way to take the final set, 6-3 and finish off Tech's 4-2 win.
Texas is on track to earn an at-large bid into the NCAA Championships field of 64, which will be announced Tuesday at NCAA.com.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Howard Joffe
Without question our group is super competitive and disappointed with coming up short in the match today. That said, I have the strong feeling we're starting to play better. I feel a lot better about our prospects at the NCAA Championships than I did seven or eight days ago. I was very, very proud of our young group today.
Last weekend, I didn't have the feeling that we were surging at the right time. But, we played tough today, and when you look back to Friday, we had three freshmen win their singles matches. The message to the team now is to lick our wounds for a day or two, get our studies take care of and get back to practice. We want to get after it and try to do what we did last year in those first two rounds.
2017 Big 12 Championships - Semifinals
No. 7 Texas Tech 4, No. 24 Texas 2
Singles – Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1, 4, 6, 5
1 No. 9 Gabriela Talaba (TTU) def. No. 42 Bianca Turati (UT), 6-2, 6-2
2 No. 82 Neda Koprcina (UT) def. No. 62 Felicity Maltby (TTU), 6-3, 6-3
3 No. 80 Petra Granic (UT) def. Alex Valenstein (TTU), 6-2, 6-2
4 Sabrina Federici (TTU) def. Anna Turati (UT), 6-4, 6-0
5 Sarah Dvorak (TTU) def. Daniella Roldan (UT), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3
6 Katelyn Jackson (TTU) def. Dani Wagland (UT), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
*Doubles matches were not contested
Players Mentioned
