No. 12 Women's Tennis sweeps season-opening doubleheader

Saturday, January 20

RELOCATED TO WELLER INDOOR TENNIS CENTER

2:30 p.m.

University of Texas

UT Rio Grande Valley

Dani Wagland

No. 12 Women's Tennis sweeps season-opening doubleheader

01.20.2018 | Women's Tennis

Longhorns shut out Texas State and UT Rio Grande Valley in matches relocated indoors.

AUSTIN, Texas – No. 12 Texas (2-0) made short work of Texas State and UT Rio Grande Valley and notched 4-0 wins over the two teams Saturday in the Horns' season-opening doubleheader at Weller Indoor Tennis Center. The matches had been scheduled to be played outdoors at the new Texas Tennis Center, but the matches were relocated indoors due to moisture on the courts from fog overnight.

Texas opened its match against Texas State with wins at the first and third doubles positions to close out the doubles point. Sophomore Petra Granic teamed with freshman Marta Perez-Mur to post a 6-0 win over Ana Perez and Julia Navajo-Melendez at first doubles.

Sophomore Bianca Turati joined freshman Fernanda Labraña to close out doubles with a 6-2 win over Joy Chia Ming Ming and Sophia Murcia-Rodriguez at third doubles. The remaining match was abandoned.

Senior Dani Wagland gave Texas a 2-0 lead over the Bobcats by way of her 6-2, 6-0 win over Alex Jones at fourth singles. The 32^nd-ranked Granic dealt Texas State's Navajo-Melendez a 6-3, 6-1 defeat at second singles, and Perez-Mur finished off the Longhorns' victory with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Chia Ming Ming at fifth singles. The remaining matches were suspended.

Texas got out to a quick start against UT Rio Grande Valley in doubles play. Freshman Bojana Markovic teamed with Bianca Turati to post a 6-1 win over Dominique Esparza and Lasya Patnaik at second doubles. Labraña and Perez-Mur closed out the doubles session with a 6-2 win over Doris Aleksovska and Anastasia Belyaeva at third doubles.

Markovic staked Texas to a 2-0 lead behind her 6-2, 6-0 win over Belyaeva at second singles. Bianca Turati finished off a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Dominique Esparza, and Granic closed out the Longhorns' win with her 6-0, 6-2 victory over Marisha Darzyan at second singles. The remaining matches were abandoned.

POST-MATCH COMMENTS

Texas head coach Howard Joffe
The idea of these doubleheaders is obviously to try to get a lot of tennis in the format of the actual college match versus the tournaments. So, in that respect, we definitely got what we were looking for. On paper, we have very strong players by comparison to the other two teams. I would give both of those teams a lot of credit for playing with passion and playing hard. I think from our point of view, I was very pleased with our group as a whole. There's definitely lots of rust on us, lots of places we need to get better and some places we were terrific. I'm pleased that we've got these two formal dual matches under our belt before we leave to go to California, where there'll be some questions asked of how good the team is out of the gate.

No. 12 Texas 4, UT Rio Grande Valley 0

Doubles – Order of Finish: 2, 3

1 Petra Granic/Anna Turati (UT) vs. Marine Darzyan/Dominique Ibarra (UTRGV), 5-2

2 Bianca Turati/Bojana Markovic (UT) def. Dominique Fuster/Lasya Patnaik (UTRGV), 6-1

3 Marta Perez-Mur/Fernanda Labraña (UT) def. Doris Aleksovska/Anastasia Belyaeva (UTRGV), 6-2

Singles – Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2

1 No. 10 Bianca Turati (UT) def. Dominique Esparza (UTRGV), 6-0, 6-0

2 No. 32 Petra Granic (UT) def. Marisha Darzyan (UTRGV), 6-0, 6-2

3 Bojana Markovic (UT) def. Anastasia Belyaeva (UTRGV), 6-2, 6-0

4 Marta Perez-Mur (UT) vs. Dominique Ibarra (UTRGV), 6-4, 1-1, susp.

5 Fernanda Labraña (UT) vs. Doris Aleksovska (UTRGV), 6-2, 4-1, susp.

6 Katie Poluta (UT) vs. Lasya Patnaik (UTRGV), 6-2, 3-1, susp.